E3 2015 Day 2: ChunkySoup’s Tales from E3 at the LACC

 Somehow the convention floor felt busier today than yesterday but that may have had a lot to do with our schedules. We were hopping all over the place fighting crowds seemingly always swimming in the opposite direction. That being said we got to see and hear and sometimes play a lot of mostly good stuff!


Not the ringing endorsement I am guessing you were hoping for but stick with me here.


 The first appointment I had was Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. Now I know I have been ragging on it a bit this week but I went in with an open mind. There are people developing these games and pouring their lives into something a lot of us enjoy. I don’t want to hate on it and not acknowledge their hard work. But….I have played COD since it was on the OG XBOX and last November was the first time since that I have not braved the cold to get the latest iteration at a midnight launch. For me the franchise has become stale with the yearly releases and I have lost my love for the multiplayer. That being said, here is the good – online and local 4-player co-op is back! I love that! “Does it have co-op?” is the one question I ask every single developer, when it makes sense, so I was happy to hear that co-op is back.

 Things were looking up but then the game started and pretty quickly it was too much muchness for my tastes. The core frantic gameplay was there and happily the story on rails design was somewhat lifted but there was way too much going on to even take breath let alone figure what the hell you would have to actually do! 


 Maybe it’s the combination of over the top futuristic setting based in real world with Black Ops 3 odd cybernetic story but, as a whole, the game seemed like a bit of a mess to me. Now I need to qualify that last statement somewhat, as the messiness could be attributed to the pre-recorded 4-player co-op session that Activision showed us and the constant flipping between players every 30 seconds or so. Could be but I am probably the only one that actually played the COD games for the story. My guess is everyone here ONLY plays multiplayer so check Jones review for that. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpm1yk3enzY[width=650,height=366]

 I jumped from over the top action into the world of wallet sucking digital to real life toys. In this instance that is also known as the Skylanders franchise. Skylanders: Superchargers is the latest edition coming out this fall and you Amiibo fans are in for a treat. The Supercharge aspect happens when you place the right Skylander with the right vehicle. Then “kowplowie!” they both get supercharged and deal mass destruction. The vehicles are of the same quality as the figures and come with articulating parts. There are 3 types of vehicles (Land, Sea, Air) that all behave in a way that make sense in their environment. 

 Three major takeaways from this appointment: 1) You can use any current portal you may have all the way back to Gen 1. 2) All the current Skylanders will work with the vehicles including the Giants. 3) With a twist of the base your new Amiibos turn into Skylanders and can be played in the game! (WiiU version only) Yes you read that right. You can play as Donkey Kong in Skyland, or Bowser, or Mario, etc. They have Skylander outfits when they come in and get supercharged as well (Donkey Kong got Diddy Kong as a co-pilot). One last item to note: Not only are you able to download the game digitally and play the starter characters digitally as well, but you can finish the game with just that character. Thank Jeebus!

https://youtu.be/Ta-fub2dbhI[width=650,height=366]

 From wallet sucking to wallet draining Jones and I headed into Destiny: The Taken King. I am not the biggest Destiny fan as it felt like, and still feels like someone tried to stick an MMO in my Halo. However, I still play it and have fun but I can tell you right now that if you love all that is Destiny, The Taken King is going to blow your fricking mind! New gear, new levels, new planets, new ships that act like planets plus the new supers are crazy! Warlocks have this lasting lightning strike that can just mow down enemies for a short time. The Hunter has void bow that once it hits its target it knocks them back and then anchors them down for a few moments. The Titan has a flame hammer that is basically Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer) but flaming. A flaming hammer of the gods for crap sake! All of that is bad ass which is good because the new enemies, the Taken, are going to be hard as hell to fight. Think ghostly supercharged versions of all 4 current enemies as that can and will happen when Oryx takes them over…hence the name “Taken” I guess.

https://youtu.be/qOzF4D6EdiY[width=650,height=366]

 After the Demo we played a new multiplayer mode called Rift which was a version of capture the flag. My team of 6 kicked ASS so hard (despite having me on their team) as we quintupled the other teams score and were told to leave. Ok ok…the round was over and we only got to play one round so we had to leave but other teams had barely even started so it was kind of like being kicked out…sorta. Anyway the $40 price tag on The Taken King is the kicker though. How much are we going to get for that? It needs to be more than the current DLC offerings and at least close to the full game for me to consider it. Who am I kidding…I’ll probably buy it anyway. I am pretty sure Jones was on the other team so I got revenge for the Battlecry match in the morning.

 My next appointment was the Reese’s Peanut butter cup of appointments for me. Two great things that taste great together. Disney and Star Wars! Those franchises separately have been known to loosen my wallet but put them together and money starts flying out uncontrollably. Good news is there are plenty of SKU’s that will allow you to choose which pack is best for cash flow. With base or without, digital or physical, Star Wars or Inside Out. However what seems like a great idea on the surface starts to add up quickly when you realize that in order to get the full Disney Infinity 3.0 experience you have to buy at least two packs and two separate ToyBox modes. There are ToyBox modes packed in but Speedway (think Mario Kart) and ToyBox Takeover are paid DLC. The characters, unfortunately, have to stay in the own universe, Star Wars stays in Star Wars, Marvel with Marvel and Disney in Disney. Almost forgot! No more blind packs for the power pods! Overall there seems to be a lot more “game” in 3.0 versus the other iterations especially the first one. Also the new ToyBox modes have more stuff to do so they won’t be boring as hell for parents as they watch their kids build crap that makes no sense.

https://youtu.be/0AKOTxfgCIQ[width=650,height=366]

Last on my list for today was the current PC only Wasteland 2 by inXile and published by Deep Silver. Released on PC last September and coming out late summer this year on PS4 and Xbox One, Wasteland 2 is a turn based strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic future in the Arizona desert. It was still a work in progress as a port but it played very well and I could see myself playing this game if they add a small tutorial, a minimap and a basic set of in game instructions. Thomas, who was assisting me, acknowledged the fact a few things were still missing so here’s hoping!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKcBWGw93L0[width=650,height=366]

Lastly I tried to get on the Xbox Daily show again today. If you missed me I was the one who didn’t win the signed Xbox One console. I’ll try again tomorrow. 

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