During Bethesda’s E3 show, one of the most exciting bits of information was that the company will be releasing a new version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim this year. Ever since this console generation kicked off with HD remakes of previous games, people have been asking for Bethesda to look towards their back catalog. When Fallout 3 was made backwards-compatible on the Xbox One, fans rejoiced and wondered when Skyrim would get the same treatment. Rather than simply making Skyrim backwards-compatible or cashing in with a quick and dirty port, Skyrim Special Edition features substantive changes. The remaster has new art and effects, volumetric god rays, dynamic depth of field, screen-space reflections, Fallout 4 style integrated modding that works on consoles, and all the official DLC.
All that is well and good, but current PC owners of Skyrim (either the original with all DLC, or the Legendary Edition) get the new version for free. Free! Plus, Skyrim Special Edition on PC will be 64-bit, greatly enhancing performance and mod capabilities. It’s a well-known fact in the modding community that Skyrim’s 32-bit memory limitations cause a myriad of issues, especially when multiple mods are used. The move to 64-bit code is a welcome change even if you don’t care about the visual enhancements. Macho Man Randy Savage dragons, endless cheese wheels, and lightsabers all day!
Skyrim Special Edition releases on October 28.
The tricky thing about top ten lists for videogames during any given year is that it’s difficult to play every game that comes out on any given year. It’s even more difficult to spend the time it takes to really get to know a game. And by difficult, I’m pretty sure I mean physically impossible. If I calculated how many hours it takes to suss out every game released in a year compared to how many hours are actually in a year, the math wouldn’t add up. Let’s see, 365 times 24 is, uh, six thousand something, which will get you through about one MMO, one Paradox game, four shooters, and about a hundred crappy iPad games. Congratulations, you’ve played 5% of the games that came out that year.
So while I did play The Witcher 3 last year, I didn’t get very far before moving on. I had other things to do. And besides, Nick Diamon did a fine job writing a review, so what did it matter if I played it? Hence its absence from my top ten list. I don’t doubt it was great. I played The Witcher 2 so I’m well aware of what CD Projekt Red can do. But it just wasn’t part of my 2015.
Fortunately, there’s no law that says you have to play a game the year it comes out. So as of today, I’m beginning my official playthrough of The Witcher 3, and I intend to go all the way to the end. Wait, does The Witcher 3 even end? How far did CD Projekt Red go with the new open-world conceit? I intend to find out at least once a day for the foreseeable future. In case you’ve already played it and you’re interested in following along someone experiencing the joy of discovery, I’ll be chronicling that discovery — and hopefully joy — here. Besides, I can’t think of a better way to commemorate this year’s E3 by ignoring it in favor of playing an old game.
Tomorrow: My Geralt. Let me show you him.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. So Russia and a powerful Western superpower walk into a central Asian country… Tom Chick and Bruce Geryk talk to Cole Wehrle, the designer of a boardgame called Pax Pamir about war and intrigue in Afghanistan, but a long time ago.
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It is inarguable that France was an important part of World War I. As one of the Allied powers, they fielded one of the biggest armies and suffered a proportionally large amount of casualties. France is dotted with important WWI battlefields. The Harlem Hellfighters, the cover subject of Battlefield 1, was attached to the French army because the United States would not let them fight. Despite the massive contribution of the French to the war, you will not be playing as the French forces in Battlefield 1 multiplayer unless you pay extra. Speaking to IGN France DICE’s Julien Wera confirmed that the French forces will be reserved for post-launch premium DLC.
“To really do justice to the French army in multiplayer and, once again, to show a side that we’re not used to seeing, we have chosen to dedicate an entire premium expansion with special treatment after the launch of the game.”
Russia will also not be available in multiplayer, but considering the game’s focus on the Western Front, that decision seems less predatory.
Since MOBAs are apparently like sharks — they need to keep adding content or they die — I got this announcement from Blizzard today about the latest new character:
Medivh, The Last Guardian, has been added to Heroes of the Storm and is now available for play! Read on for a brief overview of his Abilities.
That’s confusing for a couple of reasons. Isn’t The Last Guardian a Sony property? But it’s also confusing because I recognize that name. Where is Medivh from? Starcraft II? Diablo III? Those are the only recent Blizzard games I’ve played that aren’t Heroes of the Storm. I don’t remember him from those. Then where do I know him from? And then I realized, oh yeah, Medivh is what everyone in the Warcraft movie kept calling Ben Foster, who is SPOILER until it turns out SPOILER at which point he SPOILER. That’s where I recognize the name.
Anyway, he’s in Heroes of the Storm now, where he can turn into a raven. Which explains at least one of the confusing scenes in the Warcraft movie.
Well, finally someone made another movie based on a videogame and it’s a big big hit. In other countries. At the 1:30 mark, we’ve got spirit, yes we do, we’ve got spirit, how about our 3×3 of cheerleaders?
Next week: Embrace of the Serpent
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Sony’s 2016 E3 show was a barely interrupted succession of game trailers. It started with an odd choral arrangement that evolved into an orchestral performance conducted by Bear McCreary. From there, the audience was pushed straight into a demo of God of War, featuring Kratos on a heartwarming jog with his son. Bonding time! Days Gone, a post-apocalyptic zombie game featuring bikers gave the viewers a thrill with a wave of undead chasing a man through a barn. Annual E3 favorite The Last Guardian was displayed, this time with an October 25th release date. Horizon Zero Dawn was back with more future primitive dino-mech hunting. Resident Evil Biohazard looked appropriately dark and jump-scary. Detroit Become Human looks like it takes the multiple-choice gameplay of Until Dawn or Heavy Rain and mixes it with robots.
A selection of PlayStation VR games were shown, including a Batman Arkham VR game from Rocksteady and Battlefront X-Wing VR Mission from EA. The PlayStation VR hardware will go on sale on October 13th for $399.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare‘s space fighter, hull breaching, spaceship explosion gameplay was shown. See if you can guess how long it took the audience to realize it was a Call of Duty game. A Crash Bandicoot collection is being remastered for the PlayStation 4, along with Crash coming to Skylanders Imaginators.
Finally, Hideo Kojima was brought out to great fanfare to show off Norman Reedus’ butt in Death Stranding. It’s no Silent Hills, but naked Norman Reedus is a win.
Aisha Tyler, a Queen dance number, Matt Stone and Trey Parker cursing it up, LeVar Burton, Karl Urban, and Jeri Ryan controlling VR puppets on a computerized Star Trek bridge, Frank Marshall doing his darnedest to plug the Assassin’s Creed movie. This must be the 2016 Ubisoft E3 show!
Just Dance 2017 gave us an amazingly odd musical act to kick off the show. Ubisoft showed off some cooperative gameplay from Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands that made the infamous The Division scripted trailer look positively spontaneous. Check your six! South Park: The Fractured But Whole revealed new powers and improved tactical battles. The Survival expansion for Tom Clancy’s The Division was revealed with a trailer that made it seem like everyone’s efforts in New York have not resulted in a better tomorrow. There was a VR capture-the-flag match in Eagle Flight. The host of Reading Rainbow, Judge Dredd, and Ronnie from Boston Public donned VR helmets and played Star Trek: Bridge Crew. For Honor showed how vikings, knights, and samurai square off against one another. A Watch Dogs 2 gameplay sequence revealed just how Ubisoft could make a sidekick character even more annoying.
Finally, Ubisoft premiered a brand new franchise with Steep, an extreme snow sports game set in the Alps. Take one part The Crew, one part SSX, and one part GoPro commercial and you’ve got the idea.
Microsoft has two new Xbox consoles coming. The first, given about 30 seconds of show time, is the Xbox One S, (pictured above) a slimmer, slightly improved Xbox One. It will be available in August and costs $299. According to Microsoft, it’s 40% smaller than the current Xbox and has a better wireless controller. The second new console wasn’t even shown, but amidst all the rumors of Sony following a similar iterative strategy, Microsoft apparently wanted to get ahead of the competition. Project Scorpio was unveiled. It’s a 4K, VR-ready system coming in 2017. According to a video full of talking heads “no one gets left behind” and all Xbox One games will work on all three consoles.
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer announced the Play Anywhere program. Gamers can purchase upcoming Microsoft published games once and play them on Xbox One and their Windows 10 PCs. All five fans of Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform apps can celebrate.
Cooperative gameplay from Gears of War 4 was shown. Chainsaws, guns, and a gun that shoots saws. Speaking of Gears, General Raam from the original game is coming to Killer Instinct. Forza Horizon 3 is set in Australia. Heroes fought a giant arm in Final Fantasy XV. The Friendly Update for Minecraft went live today, which brings cross-platfrom play to the crafting game. Scalebound was on stage for the fourth E3 in a row. Frank West took some gruesome selfies in a cinematic trailer for Dead Rising 4. The standalone free-to-play Gwent game from CD Projekt Red was announced. Sea of Thieves gameplay consisting of YouTube celebrities yelling at one another debuted. State of Decay 2 involves recreating the car door scene from Zombieland. Finally, Halo Wars 2 from Creative Assembly and 343 Industries premiered and made everyone sad for what happened to Ensemble Studios.
The deck is stacked against Homefront: The Revolution from the outset. The forgettable first game; the license dumped into a fire sale; the project in progress passed around among publishers and developers like a too small T-shirt with a logo no one wants to wear; the eventual developers’ most recent credit for a full game is the half-baked Playstation 3 boondoggle Haze; the pile-ons about the silly story in a genre where almost all the stories are silly anyway, so I’m not sure why this is everyone’s new whipping boy; the Crytek engine at its level worst. Really, you don’t even have to play it to know Homefront: The Revolution is a stinker, right?
After the jump, what you find out when you actually play it. Continue reading →
Bethesda Softworks’s 2016 E3 show began with Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb back together again. Playing for time while the show started a little late, the hosts bantered and “speculated” about what we would see. Adam and Morgan took off once the show started, but threatened to come back for post-show events.
Bethesda’s Pete Hines announced Quake Champions, a multiplayer hero arena shooter. Elder Scrolls Legends, the strategy card game announced last year, was shown again. Todd Howard told the audience to expect more Fallout 4 content including new workshop stuff and a “Nuka World” amusement park setting. A Skyrim Special Edition bundle was revealed that brings graphical improvements and all DLC for Skyrim to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Arkane Studios finally admitted they’re working on Prey. Not Prey 2, but Prey, which looks to be a reboot. Doom is getting SnapMap updates including Hell-themed assets. The biggest Doom applause moment? An honest-to-gosh demo, that’s available now! What year is this? Elder Scrolls Online got some love with a look at The Dark Brotherhood expansion, and the notice that ZeniMax Online is working on “One Tamriel” an overhaul that brings dynamic level scaling to the whole game making character levels as meaningful as Cow Clicker. Finally, Bethesda gave us Dishonored 2 gameplay and dropped the November 11th release date.
Electronic Arts’ E3 2016 presentation began with thumping bass and exhortations for everyone to “PLAY TO FEEL” then ended with Jamie Foxx barely suppressing a yawn. Neither the novelty of Peter Moore presenting from London nor Andrew Wilson speaking from the main stage in Los Angeles could rescue the show from devolving into the traditional marketing jargon and sequel previews. Titanfall 2 was shown. This time, PlayStation 4 players will get to enjoy the giant robot suits and parkour shooting. Respawn promised a full offline single player campaign this time around. Of course, the next Madden and FIFA games had their spot in the show. FIFA 17 will boast The Journey, a campaign based around shepherding rising star Alex Hunter to the top of the league. A developer on Mass Effect Andromeda came up to say the game will be awesome, while a video of a starfield and rotating planet played behind him. Jade Raymond assured the audience that EA is getting their money’s worth out of the Star Wars license by promising more Star Wars gaming than anyone needs. Finally, DICE showed off some more Battlefield 1, ending their presentation with a peek at an obviously unenthusiastic Jamie Foxx and Zac Efron. Play to feel!
Tom Chick and Brandon Cackowski-Schnell talk about the current crop of shooters. What works, what doesn’t, why are we playing what we’re playing, how is Doom like an Akira Kurosawa movie, why would someone not be playing Overwatch at this point, why would someone be playing Battleborn at this point, and are Key and Peele actually funny?
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Doom’s multiplayer has problems. Beyond being a muddled, me-too affair saddled with pointless load-outs and an uninspiring XP grind, there’s rampant cheating and it’s missing features players have come to expect in big-budget releases. The single player game is exquisite, but what to do about that multiplayer? Eurogamer interviewed id Software’s Marty Stratton, and he has answers. While Certain Affinity was hired to work on the multiplayer portion of the game, ongoing support is now an internal function which will allow the developers to address issues more flexibly. First, Stratton assures players that they are working on the cheaters and that they “understand the frustration” players feel. Second, the team will be adjusting the servers to allow private match browsing, hopefully making it easier to connect to friends. Third, free DLC will be coming with the paid bits of season pass content to bolster player engagement. Finally, bots are coming. Bots! The creator of the Fritz Bot from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, currently employed by id as the programmer for SnapMap, worked on bots for Doom that were used for internal testing. These will be made available in standard multiplayer and SnapMap once they’re polished up for public consumption.
“We know that talk will only go so far with players and hope that our actions this year continue to give players across every component of the game – multiplayer, singleplayer and SnapMap – more and more reasons to continue playing and enjoying the game in whatever way they choose.”
Read the Doom review here.
The Do-Over is the latest in Adam Sandler’s too many pictures deal with Netflix. I don’t know why I watched it. I don’t know what I was expecting. I guess I still confuse Sandler with the guy from Punch-Drunk Love and Funny People. I shouldn’t be surprised that all I get is Sandler being Sandler. Which is to say a celebrity who has long since stopped giving a fuck, so now he’s just going to do movies in places where he wants to go on vacation. Seriously, check out the filming locations for Adam Sander movies. See a pattern?
If there’s any value to be gleaned from this dross, it’s David Spade’s bewildered “what happened to my career?” hangdog quality. It’s perfect for his character, who’s supposed to have a bewildered “what happened to my life?” hangdog quality. There’s an honesty to it. But unlike Sandler honestly not giving a fuck, unlike wearing flip flops on your multi-million dollar yacht in the Bahamas and half-assing your way through dialogue that doesn’t matter anyway, it has a very relatable human quality. It’s the stink of regret, the weight of middle age, the dread that you’ve lived a life not worth living. And what does The Do-Over do with it? Belittle it some of the time. But mostly ignore it because it decides Sandler is going to have a gunfight, or Paula Patton is going to push up her admirable cleavage, or Matt Walsh is going to attempt a funny accent. Okay, now it’s time for David Spade to lie underneath Luis Guzman’s sweaty balls until a drop of that sweat drips onto his glasses because haw haw.
It’s come to this? I’m as bewildered as Spade. There was so much heart in his interaction with Chris Farley in Tommy Boy. He was so willing to lend his smarminess to The Emperor’s New Groove. He had a solid sitcom career with Just Shoot Me. Now he’s meekly standing by as an Adam Sandler movie humiliates him with its throwaway fratboy antics, kicking him in the balls, making him grow a bad mustache, sticking sausages in his face because, haw haw, a sausage looks like a penis. I suppose there are worse fates than drawing a paycheck for being a co-lead in The Do-Over. Spade’s bit part in Jack and Jill, for instance. Oof.
