Well, E3 is over. Dunno about you, but I'm relieved it is.

E3 or whatever...

This is the first E3 in a long while where I actually decided to not do what I've always done in past years. Rather than set aside a couple days to watch the press conferences and live shows, while chatting with friends on the internet, I opted to skip the conferences and live shows and instead worked and played Digital Devil Saga 2. I still tuned in to the Giant Bomb live streams whenever I could though, just ignored the stuff during the day. Feels a little weird, but ultimately I feel refreshed that I did it, because ultimately the thing that I had to look forward to E3 as far back as 2002 was looking at trailers and demos of games on the show floor. Realizing that, I pretty much said "fuck the press conferences" and waited until the actual first day of the show to start absorbing content posted on Giant Bomb and Gamespot.

Though it doesn't change the fact that my interest and excitement for E3 isn't what it used to be. Discovering the existence of E3 as far back as 2002 was amazing because it provided cool preview content, and as someone who wanted to be a game designer back then, thought going to E3 would be the coolest shit ever. Now my excitement for PAX vastly outweighs mine for E3, and the internet generally becomes a lot shittier during this time of the year with horrible knee jerk reactions and bitching. I actually thought of completely ignoring the internet for the whole week, going on black out, so I could completely focus on DDS 2, but curiosity got the better of me Tuesday afternoon when I started going through the trailers posted on the site. And based on some of the behavior I've seen on the site, particularly during livestreams, I can only assume seeing the rest of the internet would make me want to kill myself.

I'm worn out on the process. I don't need to watch the press conferences. I can get the relevant info I need in a write up after the fact and not have to sit through something potentially boring, and even if there was something exciting why the fuck would you watch it after the fact? I probably would not have minded watching the Gamespot E3 coverage live, but I feel it was still better for me to skip on all the day stuff. Maybe next year I'll tune in, because the during the day live streams was the thing I liked most from last year's E3. But I am completely done with press conferences. They can fuck off.

Well, that little tirade is over, so was there any games shown I think look interesting? Quite a bit, actually. Some highlights of mine.

TItanfall

I'd have thought Respawn's game would've been something generic or a retread of what they've done in the past, but they've made something that looks pretty sweet. I dig giant robots, so this has me super excited. Stuff about the maneuverability of the pilots has me pumped because I like the fast paced FPS games of old, and even if it's not 90 mph fast, just being faster than normal is fine enough for me. Not sure if anyone has made this observation before, but I feel like this is the successor to Shogo Mobile Armor Division we never knew we wanted. Think about it: Play as a human and a giant robot, and this time there are actual differences between the way they play.

inFamous Second Son

Hey, it looks like a visually better inFamous with new powers. Sign me up. I absolutely enjoyed the first two games, so naturally I'm excited for Second Son. I'm most interested to see what other kinds of powers there are, as the main character has the Zero Fragment-I mean, the ability to absorb the powers of others and use them on his own. The last game sorta delved into that with the choice of adding fire or ice moves to your arsenal. If this completely lets you change the moveset or what, that would be pretty sweet. Everything else in this game like the traversal and stuff looks just like it should, so no problems there.

Wonderful 101 & Bayonetta 2

Putting these two Platinum games next to each other as I could not be more excited for these. I played Wonderful 101 back at PAX Prime when it was still called Project P-100, and just visually stuff has improved a lot. The action on screen is nothing short of crazy, and I love it. Was pleasantly surprised to see the introduction of a fourth hero in the Nintendo Direct trailer, and if the boxart is any indication, there's a yellow ranger equivalent and (hopefully) a mysterious sixth ranger who joins the team halfway through. Just looks like great, goofy fun.

Bayonetta 2 also looks pretty damn awesome. I dig Bayonetta's new design, especially the haircut, and the game looks like more of first one, but crazier. Totally alright with that. The Umbran Climax mechanic appear to be this game's Devil Trigger equivalent, so that's neat. Be cool if they went even further and included a DTE to it.

And I'm too lazy to come up with more detailed thoughts on all the games that caught my attention, so here's a list.

- Watch_Dogs (Interested)

- Sunset Overdrive (Curious/Interested)

- Witcher 3 (Excited

- Dark Souls II (Excited)

- Quantum Break (Curious/Excited)

- Crimson Dragon (Interested/Excited)

- Mirror's Edge 2 (Curious)

- MGS 5 (Interested/Excited)

- South Park The Stick of Truth (Curious/Interested)

- Rayman Legends (Excited)

- The Order: 1886 (Curious/Interested)

- Knack (Excited)

- Drive Club (Interested/Excited)

- Destiny (Curious/Interested)

- Super Mario 3D World (Excited)

- Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (Interested)

- Shin Megami Tensei IV (Excited)

- Pikmin 3 (Interested/Excited)

- CounterSpy (Curious/Interested)

- Super Smash Bros (Excited)

- Sonic Lost World (Interested)

- Final Fantasy XV (Curious/Interested)

- Kingdom Hearts III (Curious/Interested)

- Killer is Dead (Excited)

- Dragon's Crown (Curious/Interested)

- Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F (Motherfucking curious as hell because why the fuck would this be localized ever?)

Games I've Actually Been Playing

Well, I'm close to the end of Digital Devil Saga 2. The second to last boss is kicking my ass hard so I need to get better skills and formulate a good strategy to beat him. Again, more details when the game is completed, so next week. Also playing 1080 Snowboarding brings me back. I've not played many snowboarding games, but that one is still my favorite. Nice little nostalgia trip.

And that's about it.

In Conclusion

That's all I got for this week. A little filler before getting back to the main focus of the blog, but it was necessary as my plan is to write my thoughts on DDS 2 once I've reached the end. Also my parents are back from their vacation, so no longer living on my own.

Peace.