Nate Viramontes

So, over the next few articles will be breaking down a ton of different stuff from the E3 conferences but I figured for the first one we talk about some of the awesome high lights from the conferences at E3.

 Microsoft

Starting off with Microsoft we had some really great games and one announcement that we all saw coming Project Scarlet the brand-new Xbox generation begins next year during the holidays and will be coming out with Halo Infinite as its first official launch title. We got to see some awesome footage of Master Chief I lost my mind when I saw Spartan 117, he looks a lot like the version of him from Halo Legends. It looks so kickass.

The console from the little we got told about it sounds like it is going to be a monster and focuses a lot more on gaming as it should be. The one big thing that I am happy about is that we will be able to play all of the games available in the Xbox one’s library from hopefully the get-go. Will be getting more info soon from Microsoft, because they really didn’t say all too much.  And probably the coolest thing about all of E3 is Keanu Reeves is going to be in Cyberpunk 2077 and him being there was so freakin awesome! He is just really the best.

Bethesda

So here begins the studios really not showing to much gameplay but making some really awesome announcements. They did, however, announce two brand new IP, one being a game called Death Loop, and the other being Ghost Wire Tokyo. Ghost Wire Tokyo is a new horror game from the same studio that made The Evil Within so I think there is a really great idea here I can’t wait to see it come to life.

Death Loop is made by Arkane Studios they are the people who made Prey and Dishonored two of my favorite games. They have one of my favorite art styles ever, all the games they have made have been incredible so I’m excited to see their signature style of choice and playing the game the way you want to play it in this new game.

Ubisoft

This one gave very little to be excited about in my opinion minus Jon Bernthal bringing his dog out when he was talking about Ghost Recon Breakpoint. That game looks great in every way I love the Ghost Recon series so much and I can’t wait to see this games world will work and play.

They also announced a new game called Gods and Monsters and from the little clip, we saw I got really excited it looks a lot like a more cartoony Greek mythology game in the same vein as Assassins creed odyssey.  The big showpiece I feel was Watch Dogs legion with the new concept of playing anyone and everyone set a near future London I think this game has so much potential. I’m a little nervous because of Watch Dog has had a habit of not living up to expectations but who knows maybe this could be their big break.

SquareEnix

So, the two major announcements for Square were Final Fantasy 7 remake which I should add is only the Midgard section of the game. However, Sqaurenix has said it is basically its whole own game! This is more of reimagining then a remake.  I can’t wait to play this next year. It’s one of those games like Residents Evil 2 remake that just screams game of the year worthy.

The other major announcement was Marvels the Avengers; this game is my jam right here. We have a brand-new story set in San Francisco and we get to start off with playing Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Black widow, and Thor. We’re missing Hawkeye unfortunately but the devs did talk about how they’ll be adding new heroes and content all the time to this game for free. This game could be really incredible and with an all-star team of voice actors, I can’t wait to see what they do.

Nintendo

One thing I have to say and that’s its Legend of Zelda breath of the Wild sequel! I can’t wait to play this game I adore the first one it is so much fun and truly a runner for the greatest game of all time. So, the fact Nintendo is going double down with another one is insane and I can’t wait to see what they have an in store next.

Super smash bros also announced the Dragon Quest hero will be a new fighter alongside one of the greats of platform gaming Banjo- Kazooie! If you can’t tell who I’m excited to play as I love Banjo – Kazooie I just want to play as them already again. This is been the first game they have appeared in years. It’s great to see some RAREs best in a new game even as just fighters their legacy gets to live on.

And that’s it for the roundup we’re going to be diving deeper into each of the conferences and talking about what other games got announced and what we can be expecting soon from the gaming industry. Game on everyone!

Currently playing: Asura Wrath

Publisher’s Note: The original version of this article, published June 7, 2019, had incorrect information. This version of the article has been corrected.

With E3 2019 taking place this month, I thought it’d be fun to talk about some of the predictions of games I hope to see this year at the convention.  Every year we get tons of new games with either trailers or gameplay, sometimes both. There are going so many surprises this year I am sure.

The biggest game I know for fact is going to be at Microsoft conference is Halo Infinite. If you been reading my articles since the beginning you know I am an insanely huge fan of Halo franchise. I adore these games and this game from what little we’ve heard about it sounds great.

The game has been said to be like a spiritual reboot of the series. It sounds like the game is going to focus more on my boy Master Chief and blue team more them Spartan Locke. While I love this team, I understand why the game needs to focus on Master Chief. The last one had a lent down for a lot of people when Spartan Locke and The Chief didn’t really have a big fight or anything at all.

Bethesda’s conference is always my favorite of E3 and I love almost all their games, looking at you Fallout 76 you had to be bad, anyways I would love to see a new Dishonored game, Corvo and Emily’s stories are awesome in the first two games and the way Outsider ended I feel like there is more story to be told. Dishonored is a great stealth series if you haven’t played it you have to check them

At Squarenix’s conference we are going to finally find out more about Marvels The Avengers game. There are so many questions I have about this game, is it set in the same universe as Marvels Spider-Man? Will we maybe see him in it? Who is going to playable? I see so many awesome ideas and I can’t wait to see what this studio comes up with for The Avengers. There are so many stories that can be told and played through I can’t wait to see some footage.

From Ubisoft this year I hope to see more Ghost Recon Footage which we know they are going to show; the last game was so great I played a ton with my friends. The game is so much fun it has some issue granted but it still a great game. If your fan of the series I highly recommend going back and playing Wildlands before the next one comes out this fall.

There are so many awesome great games that are coming out and I can’t even scratch the surface of what is to come next. E3 start with Microsoft’s conference this weekend at 3:00 P.M. If you love gaming as much as me you got to check it out and see what kind new games, we get to look forward to coming out this year.

Currently playing: Divinity original sins 2.

This week I thought it would be nice to look back at another game I consider to be a hidden gem. That is the messenger the only reason I even knew what this game was is because of a YouTube Channel I watch called WhatCulture Gaming talked about it. Which by the way if you haven’t been to WhatCultures Gaming channel do yourself a favor and go look at their channel.

The Messenger is this incredible indie 8-bit/16-bit game that I truly adore. If you like games like Shovel Knight or even games like Castlevania you really need to go look at this game. You may have noticed I also mentioned both styles of a retro game.

That’s because of this game switch pixel art styles on the fly. The game’s story is about a Ninja who is just called The Messenger and his whole goal is to deliver a scroll given to him by a great champion and take it to the top of a Mountain. The reason being is the world is taking over by demons and his clan is one of the view surviving areas for humans.

The way to get the scroll to the mountain involves time traveling to the future then returning to the past at a fixed point. You run into so many awesome types of bosses to fight in the first half of the game. Honestly, if time traveling ninjas that fight armies of demons don’t sell you on this game then I don’t know what to tell you.

The game goes from a Level based game that is very linear and point to point. To all of a sudden at the halfway point of the game all the levels you beat become a giant map and the game Turns into a Metroidvania game.

I love that this game is so out there as it is that it’s just like screw It, we are changing the whole game and making into a whole new game. The boss fights are challenging but fair. Learning all kinds of patterns and timing your attacks and jumps. To me, this game is a celebration of that Retro platforming style of game.

It has a really funny and well-done story with a lot of this dialogue coming from you and the merchant. Who by the way ask him to tell you a story every chance you get, because he tells stories that make you think and stories that deal with mental health problems like depression. It got to the point where I would tear up a bit from these tales, he would tell The Messenger.

A game that’s so silly and out there you wouldn’t think could make you feel and understand true pain. It’s some really great story telling. The best part of the game I felt was that when you travel to and back from the future in the second you would change art styles from 8- bit to 16- bit.

Both styles are so well done in the game that I love looking at whatever is on screen. The other thing that changes is the music, which by the way The Messenger score throughout the different levels and area is incredible each one got me wanting to jump and fight to the beat. It’s one of the few games that I actually downloaded the music for.

The Messenger came out last year and you can get on PC, Switch, and PS4 it’s $19.99 on any of those platforms. Seriously, if you like Platforming or Mertovaina games that are pixel art style you have to play this game. It’s a really good stepping off point to for those of you who are new to 8-bit/16-bit Platform game genre. It’s cheap and it’s a really long game. It is one of those games you know you got your money’s worth.

Currently playing: Star Wars: Battlefront 2

Days gone is honestly a game that had a great idea but with poor execution. I had so much fun in the opening hours of this game it was really a lot of fun to play. Then as you get closer to end of the game even in the middle you can start seeing a lot of issues. From audio that is unsync to asset literally not loading in until the last second, it’s full of issue. But inside all of that, there is I believe a really great game.

I just finished the game and it’s roughly 30ish hours. I really love this game the characters are awesome the gameplay feels that of last of us in an open world.  I think the idea of this game however just couldn’t live in the restriction of the game itself. It had so many framerate problems to start off. I can’t tell you how many times I’d hop on my bike and start driving for the frame to literally go to a stutter.

The horde and overall way freakers work in the game are really interesting and fun. Freakers are what people call the zombie is this universe. Which I thought made them a little unique. If you made to much noise during a fight then freakers would actually come in small packs to look around so it would add something new to the fight.

The story is the best part at the time. The characters are what really make it feel alive. Deacon St. John is voice and motion cap by Sam Witwer and he is known for a ton of stop the voice of Darth Maul in the Clone Wars and he’s always Starkiller in the force unleashed games.

He is one of the best characters in the game next to Boozer, Sarah, Iron Mike, and one of my favorites Rikki. I think all of these characters bring something to the table and add life to the game. Everyone at Iron Mikes camp are some of the best characters in the game.

Speaking of camps each one has its own currency of credits. Basically, you could have 3000 credits at one camp but have none at another. Doing jobs and bringing bounty’s in help get more credits. This idea I liked and hated because if I fast travel to a camp and was out gas and didn’t have the credits at a camp, I really don’t go to then I was screwed. While this only happened to me once it still sucked and wasted time looking for a gas can that was nowhere close to the cam.

Graphically the game looks really. The open world has much to explore and do. Some of my biggest issues came from a cut scene that would lose the audio sync and throw it off completely and ruin important moments. Something that bothered me was when main characters like Deacon or iron mike gave speeches, they would add this lame crowd cheering thing in the background that honestly just took me out of the scene and had me laughing at the dumb they were saying.

From the gameplay, it is such a solid game and has some really fun gunplay and melee combat. Riding on the bike that always needs gas is actually really fun. My biggest complaint is it runs through gas insanely fast and it gets damaged on almost anything but it still so much fun to drift in and speed down the abandoned freeway.

Overall, this is a very fun game within a hot mess of video game. I think if it is given enough love and attention it could become truly awesome.  I’m giving this game a 7/10 for being a fun game that with a rough framerate amongst a bunch of other technical issues could be a truly awesome game in Sony’s line up.  My best advice gives the devs a few months before picking it up.

Currently playing: Ninja Garden 3 Razor Edge