E3 2014: Nintendo Digital Event

This is the year, this is the year Nintendo made me want to get a Wii U.

Opening with some Smash Bros as expected but with a twist. Announced are 'ambio' little skylander type figures featuring Nintendo champs that you can use to bring characters into the game by dropping the figure onto the game-pad. The 3DS version got some footage but its so hard to look at after seeing the big daddy version, it just looks so flat in comparison.



Nintendo uses creepy Luigi.

Yoshi's Wool World is a huge smile bringer, it is brimming with cuteness and brought a huge smile to my face. This is what I like to see Nintendo do.

Captain Toads's Treasure Hunt is a game and could be cool I suppose. Can't say a have any kind of big affliction for that character...

New Zelda is here ladies and gents and it's what I've spend countless years of my life asking for. Huge open gorgeous world. Not much else was shown, no real gameplay but I'm sold easy.

New Pokemon remakes of Sapphire and Ruby get a trailer and it's cool to see one of my most played Pokemon games getting the up-ressing up-grading treatment finally.

Bayonetta 2 gets a bat-shit crazy trailer with a follow up announcement that the original is coming with the release of 2 along with some Nintendo skins for you to use in game. Looks awesome and everything I want from this game. Still not sold on the new haircut though.

I'm still not sold on Hyrule Warriors either. It looks cool and the gameplay looks fun but I've never been into Dynasty Warriors and a Zelda skin slap on that franchise isn't enough for me.

Kirby and The Rainbow Curse has a really different art style and looks interesting.

Xenoblade Chronicles X has a really cool trailer even for someone like me, who has never played a single game in the franchise.

Mario Maker? Make custom levels. Why hasn't this been a thing for a while now? It's such a simple idea but could be so cool if you can share and download other players courses. This should be a feature spanning over all Mario games from now til the end of time, like LBP.

Splatoon? Nintendo seriously just spend a good chunk of time talking about a fully online shooter game? Hey it looks cool though. Transform from a human to squid and the implementation of using your ink  to slow down opponents or speed up your team. The art is strong and could be a lot of fun with your friends.

And Nintendo ends on Palutena joining Smash Bros. I was kinda hoping for a Metroid announcement with the whole 'oh one last thing' from Regi but oh well... Kid Icarus (thumbs up.)


Nintendo had a strong showing an I'm on board guys I want a Wii U now.

E3 2014: Sony Conference

Sony basically dropped the mic last year and whether they could do the same this year or even try was a question on my mind all week. To answer; I guess they tried.

Opening with some more Destiny footage is cool and all but do we honestly need to start the show with an announcement for a Beta, to start the show?

White PS4 looks sexy, nuff said.

The Order: 1886 gets an eerie trailer showing of some kinda of monster and the protagonist getting thrown around. Still seems like every time I see this game it's emitting a different feel, or have they simply changed it up since its reveal last year?

Entwine a game available now that I had never hear of. Use both thumb sticks to control two dragons and move them in the right paths or something. Could be fun to play and I'll check it out, but didn't make for a great trailer.

Infamous: Second Son is not getting the Vita game I wanted but we get a stand alone DLC which is cool to, i guess. Infamous: First Light play as kit, the girl from the game. Presumably this will take place before the main campaign which could be cool. I mean its more Infamous.

LittleBigPlanet 3 is a thing, kinda of expect, but a thing. It's feature a more robust co-op mode with 3 new characters not all sack-boys.It looks like LBP, it is LBP but prettier.

From Software brings a gory trailer for there new dark as expect titled Bloodborne.

Far Cry 4 gets some actual gamplay showed of and it's amazing. Jumping along rooftops putting bombs on explosives kicking them down and blowing bad guys up, shooting dudes with bows and guns. Then jump into a car and jump out of said car into a truck and kill the dudes in it, only to crash of the cliff and glide with your suit down below, down below featuring lots of elephants. Co-op is integrated meaning your friends can jump in and out of your game to help you out.

Deep Silver has Dead Island 2 coming and it looks like a zombie game, woo.

Clickers from 'The Last of Us' have somehow made there way into Diablo 3 on PS4.

That Disney figurine game you see on K-marts shelves. Yeah, Sony has exclusive Marvel characters for that!

More exclusive stuff for Destiny got mentioned, woo.

Magika 2 is a thing.

Explosions and tears kids as Grim Fandango is getting re-masted/updated.

Indie Reel shows some interesting and odd stuff, but Hotline Miami 2 was in there so winning.

Grasshopper Manufacturer's next game is a PS4 exclusive and it looked like torture porn the game but I really couldnt figure out what was happening. Expected this is Suda 51.

Abzu is a game. Looks like something you need to play to know what it is, trailer no justice.

No Man's Sky finally made an appearance and answers the question of who got to it after the VGX reveal last year. Still looks awesome and way to cool for a small studio to be pulling of realistically.

Sony talks about boring online numbers but follow up with announcing Youtube is coming (finally) to PS4 so you can upload your gameclips straight to there.

25 Free to Play games are apparently making there way to the Sony eco-system in the next 12 months, among theme Planetside 2.    

PS Now still sounds cool for people who are getting it and have decent internet connections in there countries. I might sit here and doodle around with my thumbs some more every time it is mentioned.

Follow that up with an announcement of PS TV coming to everywhere but my life and yawn, jealous, boo.

Mortal Kombat X gets it's first gameplay and its gorgeous and gory and the environments seem really cool. Oh and the fatalities are just worse.

Sony spend way to long talking about there TV program which may sound cool with the promise of shows that 'gamers will like' and the announcement that the comic Powers is coming with 2 seasons. Unfortunately this segment went for so like that my note for the time is 'give me games... fuck.'

A re-mastered original Ratchet & Clank is coming along with the movie, which look pretty cool.



Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. Hey, cool trailer but what the hell was even happening?

My prediction upon GTA 5's release comes true as it is coming to PS4 and hey you can move your online profile from either PS3 or the X360 over.

Batman looks amazing. The draw distance is glorious and the Batmobile is bad ass as apparently Batman gives no shits about blowing up a few things to save the city. Everything flows faster, no crawling through that and no slowing crawling down that ladder.

Somehow Uncharted 4 got a trailer even with all the weird firing, leaving and hiring that has been happening over at Naughty Dog the last couple months. Drake looks way different, graphics are a thing.

Sony didn't follow up after last years great show with a better one or even a similar one. They had heaps of great things to show unfortunately the length of some things simple made it slow down and lose pace.

E3 2014: Ubisoft Coneference

Ubisoft always seem to have the most awkward conferences, although this year luckily we had no Mr Caffeine. Aisha Tyler hosts again and I really like her, so to bad if you don't.

Opening with Far Cry 4 is a bang, the new bad guy voiced my my man crush Troy Baker seems totally bonkers. Taking a selfie after stabbing a guy 10 times in the chest? Sure. He has style, he has anger, he seems sadistic but man if i don't want to know more about him.

Question. Do people still really play Just Dance on a regular basis, not just a simple once a year on drunken night? Apparently. People dancing with a phones using a mobile app for the game to lady gaga and then some terrible acting from the dancers. Moving on.

Somehow it was a good decision to go from awkward Just Dance to a horribly depressing trailer for The Division, good trailer, sad face though.

I like car games, i don't mind some sim car action but more arcade stuff like Need For Speed or Burnout suit my need. The Crew seems like a mix of all that and the trailer they showed has me really interested. Watching a car just drive around America with the music used was oddly mesmerizing. Hopefully I can just sit back relax and take a drive around America roads, the game sounds truly to good to be true but if it pays of I'm down.

Some more Assassins Creed: Unity and once again my first reaction is look at all these name NPC's on the screen. Truly the series looks to be able to achieve what they have wanted to go for since the original. Walking around and discovering side missions naturally is a good idea and the combat seems to be fluent.

Obligatory fitness game, but hey at least if you want to use one of these fitness games on kinect this one looks fun at least.  

Valiant Hearts is a WW1 stylized stunning game based on real letter from the war. Looks interesting if not for the fact that there was dog in the trailer and if he dies in the game, me be mad.

Ubisoft ended on a bomb with Rainbow 6: Siege and for Alpha footage it looks amazing. This is the kind of co-operative game I want to play with friends. Taking down hostage takers in a house with pure planning and the destruction environments make this harder than simple sitting beside a door and picking of the bad guys.

Ubisoft had a good showing this year with a lot of killer looking games and even with the awkward non-interesting ones we we're onto the next thing fast.

E3 2014: EA Conference

EA can always be a bumer to sit through for me. I'm not a big sports games guy and that is a big part of EA's deal. EA did offer enough teases and trailers to push me through though.

Opening with one of my most anticipated games, Star Wars Battlefront and it was amazing if only seeing pre/Alpha footage, still looking amazing though. The amount of detail they saw there going for give high, high hopes.

Dragon Age made another appearance this time with an on-stage violin player which was cool but having not played them if the music was supposed to invoke a mood on me, didn't work.

Mass Effect made a small but still awesome appearance even with little details. More Mass Effect more planets more details and stories, everything I love. I looked at the Shepard poster on my wall and gave a slight nod.

Bioware also announced they are working on a new IP which is great, little to no details but how can you go wrong with Bioware? Take my money I'll pre-order it now. I have this much faith guys.

The loudest girls squeals from the audience in my ear followed a Sims 4 logo. I don't care for Sims and never have but they have added personality to sims now. Forgive me if I'm wrong but Sims with personality defeats the purpose no?

As I said me and sports game a no-no but Bruce Lee is in UFC and I kinda want to play just that even if the demo was weird as per usual with all these sports ones.

Another take my money now was a really early look at Criterions next game which features crazies to the next level, as is to be expected from these guys now. Parachute onto an ATV and fly onto a boat with Choppers chasing you. Game sounds and looks crazy and will be awesome guaranteed.

Weirdest thing was defiantly the golf trailer. It's using Frostbite Engine 3 and is extreme GOLF! Battleship crashing into the course is cool for the 'extreme fantasy' courses but give me a whole game like that and i'd be 100% onboad. No load times between holes is just a thing.

Madden & FIFA Yawns...

Dawngate is an MOBA was promise but the focus on story could be a good or bad thing. League has a story but no one really cares to the point character's lore was remove from the in game screen. Gameplay is all MOBA is about.



Mirrors Edge 2 got a showing, not much new stuff. Look like ME and I like that but for all the people that hated or didn't go much on the original not much to pull them in. Also, still to white.

Then EA blew me up as a Battlefield fan, Hardline looks amazing. It's battlefield that you know and love but with the simple Cops VS Robbers set-up that is taken to the extreme levels of Battlefield. This isn't Pay Day. This is still craziness that you'd expect from Battlefield. Then to make PS4's everywhere blow up and the Hardline website they announced the beta was going up right now for Battlefield 4 owners on PS4 and you can sign up online for PC. I've been trying any way for over half an hour of writing this and the site and PS4 will not work.

I liked EA's approach they showed a lot of stuff they normally wouldnt have, lots of alpha stuff but take it or leave it. People would complain if no Star Wars or Mass Effect was mentioned and they will probably still complain with what they got. I also appreciated the non-celebrity approach to the conference. We had developers talking not random as paid awkward people on stage and it paid of.

Back to trying for this Battlefield: Hardline Beta before the Ubi conference.  

E3 2014: Microsoft Conference

It's well known that Microsoft didn't exactly have a great show last year, but it's safe to say this year they were miles ahead of last year with there 2014 conference.

Opening predictably with the latest COD 'Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare,' with the unfortunate no show of Kevin Spacey. As a well open non-fan of the COD franchise as it is i can say that this new one looks interesting, at least different. A lot of what was shown seems to be taking elements from other FPS franchises but to good effect.

I don't own a X1 but damn if i did Forza Horizons 2 would be on my... horizons. The game looks and sounds beautiful.



Evolve made a quick trailer appearance but once again, like its release trailer it automatically garnered 100% attention. It is simply one of the most interesting looking games coming this year.

The new Assassins Creed made a show which I didn't expect. And just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in. Although the French Revolution setting for AC: Unity sounded cool in premise seeing the game finally has me sold. This is defiantly a next-gen AC, the amount of NPC's on screen at one time was simply crazy and the blood splatter effects was disquieting brilliance. The selling point of 4 player co-op, 'a real brotherhood' is awesome. The set-up and pay of looks like amazing havoc to be had with friends, plus interior-exterior is a thing now.

Once again a Dragon Age: Inquisition trailer prods me to be picking up and playing this series finally.

Most entertaining, smile making trailer award goes to Insomniacs Sunset Overdrive without a doubt. The character is a smart-ass and the art is bright, Insomniac back more like there Ratchet days. The gameplay looks interesting and fun, maybe a little to arcadey if anything and I wasn't quite sure how the campaign would be working out.

Dead Rising 3 is getting some arcade DLC which is apparently a thing, trailer was funny though.

Fable: Legends got some gameplay on stage and it looks oddly interesting, is this not just DnD the videogame? 4 players teaming up, one player controlling monsters and traps. Interesting and defiantly preety.

Project Spark is create your own games LBP style but CONKER showed up at the end GG.

A gorgeous game braced my screen and was revealed to be Ori and the blind forrest and I'm sold for it's art style alone.

'I love you' says a man in the audience for The Master Chief Saga announcement. Deserved as it is the best re-mastered set up ever. 4 games on one disc Halo 2 multi-player all as it was with 100 maps over the entire disc oh and you can playlist your favorite stuff into a mode?  

Playdeads new game looks eerie and gave me the goosebumps. It's dark and everything you would expect from the Limbo guys.

X1 has an indie real and some people still scream 'show real games on twitter.'

Completely didn't expect anything this year but the next Tomb Raider titled, 'Rise of the Tomb Raider' got a very teaser trailer with nothing but confirmation of the game coming, still cool.

Witcher 3 shows up and blows everything out of the water. Can we all not just agree this is the best looking game coming out? Just watch that gameplay over and over. Best Griffin in a game ever?

Phantom Dust is a game apparently, I'm sorry I didn't have an Xbox.

Division shows up and the demo is same, same as we have seen before but still it looks amazing. Still not 100% sure on what kind of game this is. MMO? RPG? Third Person Shooter? All of the above? Don't care I'm sold.

PlatinumGames has a new IP with ScaleBound and it has huge monsters. No gameplay shown so cannot be sure, but it's PG so I want to play it please.

Lastly a Crackdown reboot/re-master is coming and although no gameplay the trailer was really cool. Co-op entire game and looks heaps of fun.

Microsoft had a really strong showing, it was simply all games,games,games this year and was beautiful. Looking forward to Sony's showing after how well this was.  

 

True Detective: Season One Review (2014) (No Spoilers)

Another cop show on TV? Oooo-Ahhhh. Fortuantly for any doubters, this isn't a CSI, NCIS, Law & Order attempt of charades on a weekly basis. True Detective is an eight episode series that is amazing from start to finish.


Detective Rust Cohle (Mathew McConaughey) and Detective Marty Hard (Woody Harrelson) open the series investigating a dead woman's body wrangled with antlers - in the middle of no where - next to a tree. It's a confronting opening but will hopefully prepare you for that is to come. For you are watching HBO programming and that means - they can do whatever the hell they want.

You soon learn that this is the past and in the  future/present both Rust and Marty are being questioned (on there own behalf) about, well everything. True Detective switches between past and present through-out the series and each side developing it's own plot at a nice past for an eventual meeting point.

True Detectives story and pacing was questioned by a lot of people online within the first couple episodes. I was on board from the beginning, but some likened to argue nothing happens. Truth be told, if you don't like lots of talking in your on-screen viewing than this isn't going to be the show for you. If you however like a great script, acting, camera work or anything that resembles fantastic and brilliant television than yeah, True Detective is all of that and much more.

True Detectives opener 'The Long Bright Dark' sets up the award very different partnership of Rust and Marty. McConaughey continuing to surprise with his somewhat 180 of his career. He is absolute memorizing and brilliant. The what could be considered over the top monologues soon become part of his character and believable not the writer and actor trying to be clever. Harrelson is also brilliant and the two really carry this show into a next level with there chemistry.

Although the male cast are all great, True Detective struggles with it's female characters. Marty's Wife, Maggie (Michelle Monaghan) falls into at least a few 'Cop Wife' tropes and she is the leading lady of the show  It just would have been nice for the only Woman on the show not being basically a hooker or stripper to show some character and be enjoyable not annoying and predictable.

Episode Four 'Who Goes There" is the most action like episode of the entire show and they pull no punches with it. For a show that features barley any action, when they do go to do an action like sequence, it's amazing and proves to be one of the best episodes of TV in recent memory. No Spoilers, but the last six minutes is draw dropping .

True Detective has already started to spawn fandom online and I'm there, it's a show that probably wasn't made for it but is full of features for people to cling to easily. It's gif-able, quotable and t-shirt design-able.

The unfortunate matter is that once you have watched 'Form and Void' the series finale, there will be no more Rust and Marty. True Detective is to be an anthology show like American Horror Story, where each new year they are new characters and new stories.

I seriously doubt anything else on TV in 2014 or maybe even in cinemas will top the fantastic script and characters, cinematography, acting and direction of True Detective - I implore you to watch this dark and brilliant show.

+ 'Who Goes There'

+ McConaughey and Harrelson

+ Perfect Finale

- Female Characters

Overall: 9.5