{"id":15143,"date":"2016-06-20T00:01:54","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T00:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=15143"},"modified":"2016-06-17T02:48:58","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T02:48:58","slug":"e3-2016-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/20\/e3-2016-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"E3 2016 Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"E3_LOGO\"<\/a>Well another E3 has come and gone, and this was the first year in a long time that I wasn\u2019t quite as interested in it as I usually am.\u00a0 But there was still enough stuff that I could write a blog about, so here it is!<\/span><\/p>\n

But first I\u2019m going to gripe again about not being able to go to E3.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been complaining about this for the past four years, so I\u2019ll try to make it short this time.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been reviewing games for 20 years come this August, and for most of that time I have had no problem getting a press pass to E3.\u00a0 But in the past four years, they\u2019ve denied me a press pass, saying the site I write for is too small.\u00a0 In a way I\u2019m glad that the E3 folks are that picky because anyone can poop out a web site or YouTube channel nowadays.\u00a0 But I also wish they would judge press credentials on experience, too.\u00a0 The E3 folks certainly know how long I\u2019ve been doing this, and if not, I can easily prove it.\u00a0 And even though the GamerDad site is small, a lot of people have heard of it, and it even surprises me sometimes!<\/span><\/p>\n

In a way, I guess it\u2019s good I wasn\u2019t as interested in E3 this year, and I\u2019m sorry for complaining about not being able to go, since it\u2019s one of those \u201cfirst-world problems.\u201d (See, I can speak the lingo) A week or so ago, an online friend told me I should find a bigger site to write for so I could get into E3.\u00a0 While I know he was only trying to be helpful, I wanted to say, \u201cEasier said than done, pal!\u201d\u00a0 Just because I might be able to write for a bigger site, it doesn\u2019t guarantee me an E3 press pass.\u00a0 Plus, I\u2019ve noticed lately that people on the internet are especially critical of game reviewers when they aren\u2019t reviewing a game that\u2019s best suited to them.\u00a0 Well, I am best suited to play family friendly games, so GamerDad.com is a good place for me right now.\u00a0 I guess I\u2019m just stubborn (or stupid).\u00a0 It also makes me sad because when I\u2019ve gone to E3 in the past, I\u2019ve always brought my dad with me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been blind in my left eye since birth, so sometimes it\u2019s useful for me to have someone to help me navigate around crowded spaces and help with transportation.\u00a0 And I always have fun doing that with my dad so I do miss it.\u00a0 Plus this past week wasn\u2019t a very good week for me, so I\u2019ve been a bit more grumblier than usual.<\/span><\/p>\n

One trend I\u2019m worried about with gaming is all the VR stuff that was shown at E3.\u00a0 Since I\u2019ve been blind in my left eye since birth, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d be able to see the VR stuff very well.\u00a0 If everything goes VR in the future, there may come a time that I can\u2019t review games at all anymore.\u00a0 Considering I\u2019ve been able to do this for 20 years with no problem, it kind of depresses me a little.\u00a0 It may be why I may still try to go to PAX in Seattle even though I should save my money, because I should try and enjoy doing all the conventions and things while I can!<\/span><\/p>\n

Another disappointing thing about this year\u2019s E3 is that Microsoft and Sony didn\u2019t really have hardly anything that interested me.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, I have nothing against those two companies.\u00a0 In fact, in the last console generation, I preferred playing games on the 360 instead of the Wii, and that\u2019s saying a lot, coming from me!\u00a0 But there\u2019s really only three games I\u2019d want to play on the Xbox One.\u00a0 One is Rare Replay, which is just a bunch of old games.\u00a0 Another is Cuphead, which was shown at E3, but I\u2019d probably be just as happy watching someone play it, since I hear it\u2019s ridiculously hard.\u00a0 So that just leaves Ori and the Blind Forest.\u00a0 While I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s a great game, I don\u2019t buy a new game console just for one title.\u00a0 The PS4 doesn\u2019t have a whole lot more that interests me, but I do think it was neat that they announced a new Crash Bandicoot game.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like Crash games, but I\u2019m glad they had a colorful, cartoony family friendly game to show.<\/span><\/p>\n

So before I start talking about the games at E3 that did interest me, I wanted to say that while I got most of my info from press releases in my email and game company websites, I also gleaned some info from a YouTube channel called GameXplain.\u00a0 They seemed to cover a majority of games that I was interested in, and did so in a clear, professional manner.\u00a0 So I just have to give credit where credit is due.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nintendo<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, I have to say that I really preferred how Nintendo covered E3 last year. \u00a0I liked how they had demos of a bunch of indie games you could download, so it was like you were at E3, too!\u00a0 And I just prefer the Nintendo Direct and the shorter game announcement trailers.\u00a0 They had just as much info as the long and drawn out Treehouse Live segments.\u00a0 And I liked those Henson Creature Workshop puppets.\u00a0 And I guess I still miss Iwata.\u00a0 They still did a good job showing off lots of gameplay of their titles, I just felt the segments were too long and the Q&A parts were so full of obvious controlled PR media speak.\u00a0 Plus I was jealous when they interviewed popular YouTube reviewers.\u00a0 They probably wouldn\u2019t want to interview me; I\u2019d be too honest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course the game everyone was talking about was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wind, and for good reason.\u00a0 The game looks great, and I love the new title.\u00a0 I was surprised to hear voice acting in the trailer, and it looks almost like a Twilight Princess sequel with elements of Wind Waker and Skyward Sword thrown in.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been reading that it only has four main dungeons, which is a bit discouraging, but other than that, I\u2019ll be looking forward to it.\u00a0 Zelda games rarely disappoint.\u00a0 Looks like there is more of a focus on exploration, with fun stuff to do like hunting and cooking.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the opposite of Skyward Sword, which had more of an emphasis on puzzle solving.\u00a0 I just wish they could find a happy medium.\u00a0 It looks like there are a lot of physics-based puzzles in this one.\u00a0 I love the new amiibo that go with it, and that it\u2019ll also use the Wolf Link amiibo.\u00a0 I just hate that I\u2019m going to have to complete the Twilight Princess Cave of Shadows in order to use Wolf Link in the new game.\u00a0 Hope it\u2019s not hard (yeah I\u2019m lazy).\u00a0 Of course it\u2019s tough to get TOO excited about the new Zelda title since it\u2019s not even coming out this year.\u00a0 But as long as you can tromp around in dungeons and fight cool bosses, I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll still be a fun game.<\/span><\/p>\n

They also had a lot of Pok\u00e9mon news. I can\u2019t get very excited about Sun & Moon because the main Pok\u00e9mon games haven\u2019t changed much since the originals, and I\u2019ve kind of got burned out on them.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not a bad thing.\u00a0 Why fix what isn\u2019t broken, and while it may be overdone to me, a new generation of kids can enjoy Sun & Moon and it\u2019ll be a brand new experience for them.\u00a0 And that\u2019s who the Pok\u00e9mon games are really made for.\u00a0 I also can\u2019t get excited about the Pok\u00e9mon GO mobile title.\u00a0 I don\u2019t live with my cell phone attached to my hand, and since I\u2019m blind in my left eye, I don\u2019t like to walk around looking at only my phone.\u00a0 Plus, my phone is pretty old and may not even be able to run it that well.\u00a0 I wish they would\u2019ve announced a US release of that Detective Pikachu game!<\/span><\/p>\n

And of course they had some Mario games.\u00a0 I\u2019m not too thrilled with Mario Party: Star Rush because I haven\u2019t gotten into a Mario Party game since the N64.\u00a0 And I can\u2019t even imagine playing it on the 3DS.\u00a0 At least we\u2019ll get some new Mario series amiibo out of it.\u00a0 We\u2019ll get Wario, Waluigi, Daisy, Rosalina, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Boo.\u00a0 I read that the Boo amiibo will even glow in the dark!\u00a0 Anything that glows in the dark is automatically cooler!\u00a0 They also had Paper Mario: Color Splash on the Wii U.\u00a0 I\u2019m worried about this one as well because it looks like it plays similarly to Sticker Star, and that game was not good.\u00a0 Hopefully they\u2019ll improve things, as I\u2019ll give it a try anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

There were a few smaller games on the 3DS that grabbed my interest.\u00a0 One was Ever Oasis, an action RPG where you build up an oasis in the desert by exploring dungeons.\u00a0 The graphics are colorful and one of the folks who helped make it also worked on older Final Fantasy and Secret of Mana games.\u00a0 It kind of reminds me of Fantasy Life, but I hope I have a chance to play this one since when Fantasy Life came out, I didn\u2019t have time to get it because I had too many other games to review and I was also very busy at work.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t give a release date, but I hope to see Ever Oasis this year since I have to wait until next year for Zelda.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was also glad to see BoxBox Boy.\u00a0 It\u2019s a sequel to BoxBoy, a 2-D platform puzzler downloadable on the 3DS.\u00a0 I even got to review it.\u00a0 The games are made by HAL, who also do the Kirby games, so you know it\u2019s good!\u00a0 Then there was Rhythm Heaven Megamix.\u00a0 It\u2019s a music game series done by the same folks who do WarioWare.\u00a0 I love the weirdness of these games, but I\u2019m not very good at them!\u00a0 What\u2019s cool is that the new game is already out on the eShop, but I\u2019m also disappointed by this because I think it had a physical release in Japan.\u00a0 I\u2019d be more inclined to get a physical copy, but as an online download, I may not snag it so quickly.\u00a0 And finally they had Yo-Kai Watch 2.\u00a0 I may skip out on this one because while I liked the cartoony characters in the first game, it didn\u2019t hold my interest enough to beat it, and the sequel looks like more of the same.\u00a0 I wonder if we\u2019ll get the third Yo-Kai Watch game, which is supposedly set in the US!<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all for Nintendo!\u00a0 They showed other games, but any others didn\u2019t interest me.\u00a0 While they had some good games, I\u2019m still disappointed with Nintendo because there didn\u2019t seem to be as many good Wii U games coming out this year like they had last year.\u00a0 Last year we got Splatoon and Mario Maker and Yoshi\u2019s Woolly World.\u00a0 This year doesn\u2019t look so promising.\u00a0 I\u2019m also disappointed we didn\u2019t get any info on the NX.\u00a0 And if we did, I didn\u2019t hear anything about it.\u00a0 Considering it\u2019s supposed to release next year at the same time as Zelda, you\u2019d think they\u2019d have some info on it.\u00a0 I also wanted to hear more about Nintendo\u2019s mobile offerings.\u00a0 We got stuff about Pokemon GO, but that\u2019s it.\u00a0 I\u2019m not interested in the Fire Emblem mobile game, but I sure would like to see that Animal Crossing mobile game!\u00a0 Animal Crossing on the GameCube is one of my top five favorite games of all time, and I love the other titles in the series a lot as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Natsume<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Another thing I miss about going to E3 is meeting with the smaller third party companies, and Natsume is one of those.\u00a0 They\u2019ve been super supportive of me almost as long as I\u2019ve written for GamerDad, but in the past couple of years, I haven\u2019t been able to review as many games from them lately, which is sad.\u00a0 Of course they had a new Harvest Moon game, titled Harvest Moon: Skytree Village for 3DS.\u00a0 But they had a couple of other interesting titles as well.\u00a0 One was Wild Guns: Reloaded. \u00a0It\u2019s a PS4 game, so I can\u2019t play it, but it\u2019s a sequel to a game that was originally on the SNES!\u00a0 It\u2019s a shooter game that kind of reminds me of the arcade classic Cabal, but with a Wild West\/Steampunk setting.\u00a0 I never played the one on the SNES, but it looked pretty weird and quirky!\u00a0 And last was River City: Tokyo Rumble, a sequel to River City Ransom!\u00a0 I never really got into the NES game or the GBA remake, but I do have respect for the series.\u00a0 But the only reason why I may get this one is because you can play dodgeball in it, and Super Dodge Ball (part of the same series) on NES was my most favorite sports game ever until Wii Sports came along.\u00a0 Just don\u2019t say that River City Ransom was the first game in the Kunio series.\u00a0 It was actually Renegade in the arcade!<\/span><\/p>\n

Square-Enix<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another company I\u2019ve had longtime PR contacts with, ever since my Dallas Morning News days!\u00a0 But like Natsume, I haven\u2019t been able to review as many games from them in the past couple of years even though both companies send me press releases all the time.\u00a0 They had a bunch of stuff at this year\u2019s E3.\u00a0 Most of which I\u2019m not interested in, but some of it I was.\u00a0 They had a couple of Kingdom Hearts titles, but nothing about Kingdom Hearts 3 that I saw.\u00a0 I wonder if we\u2019ll get that game in the next couple of years?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if they showed it this year like they did last year, but I\u2019m still interested in World of Final Fantasy for PS4\/Vita, because it looks cute.\u00a0 And finally is an RPG called I Am Setsuna.\u00a0 It\u2019s for PS4 so I can\u2019t play it right now, but it looks like it has classic RPG elements like Chrono Trigger.\u00a0 If I ever got a PS4, I\u2019d be tempted to look into this one further.<\/span><\/p>\n

Misc. Stuff<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

With Disney Infinity ending and lots of store sales on Skylanders figures, some people are predicting the toys-for-life fad may be over soon.\u00a0 But it still looks like LEGO Dimensions will be around for a bit longer with expansions on the original game.\u00a0 Some of the new sets include A-Team, Gremlins, Adventure Time, and even Sonic the Hedgehog!\u00a0 I wonder if they also showed the new LEGO Star Wars game?\u00a0 I hope I get to review both! And speaking of toys-to-life, I don\u2019t know if Activision was at E3, but I did get a press release about Skylanders: Imaginators, which lets you create your own Skylander characters!\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll still have toys to go with it, but they did announce that Crash Bandicoot would be a guest character in this one! I hope I get to review this one as well, as I\u2019ve been lucky enough to review every Skylanders game in the past!<\/span><\/p>\n

Yooka-Laylee was made by ex-Rare staff, and is supposed to be a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. I\u2019m just glad that it\u2019s a colorful 3-D platformer and will be on a console I can play it on!\u00a0 Hopefully it\u2019ll be the B-K sequel everyone wanted, although I still liked Nuts & Bolts.\u00a0 The E3 trailer is pretty cool.\u00a0 I was also glad to hear that Capcom showed off Phoenix Wright: Spirit of Justice, and even used their booth courtroom decorations from Dual Destinies.\u00a0 Also shown was Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, which looks great and will be out in September. I\u2019ve been a huge Shantae fan ever since the original on the Game Boy Color (still have my copy).\u00a0 I think it\u2019s cool that XSEED is publishing a physical copy of this new title.\u00a0 I have pretty good contacts with WayForward, and I used to have good contacts with XSEED, so we\u2019ll see if I get to review it.\u00a0 And finally, I just got a text from my friend that Gurumin 3D is coming to the 3DS this summer.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 3-D action-RPG from Falcom, makers of Ys, and it plays like a cross between Ys, Drill Dozer, Brave Fencer Musashi, and Foster\u2019s Home for Imaginary Friends.\u00a0 If you missed it on PSP, check it out when it comes to 3DS!<\/span><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all I have to say about E3, but I need your help.\u00a0 If you read any E3 news that you think would interest me that I might\u2019ve missed, please let me know!\u00a0 And tell me which pieces of E3 news grabbed your attention the most! Thanks for reading!\u00a0 –Cary<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well another E3 has come and gone, and this was the first year in a long time that I wasn\u2019t quite as interested in it as I usually am.\u00a0 But there was still enough stuff that I could write a blog about, so here it is! But first I\u2019m going to gripe again about not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15143"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15145,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15143\/revisions\/15145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}