First Impressions: Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

My apologies for the delay on this one, I've been preoccupied for the morning.

Ah Lego, the innocent toy loved by children and hatted by wallets everywhere (some countries more so then others). It never ceases to amaze me what people have been able to make with the toy. From basic houses, to cranes, to armies of mass destruction, to a semi livable house (as long as water isn't involved). Everytime I think I've seen it all, something new comes out either from Lego themselves or from a fan that catches my interest. Nine years ago, Lego put out a Star Wars themed Lego game focusing on the plot of the prequel trilogy. The game itself is a lot of fun even if you don't know what star wars is or hate the prequel trilogy. Since then this model has been used in other games including 2 more Star Wars themed games (not including the complete series game that had all 6 films), Indiana Jones, The Lego Movie and of course the super heroes games for Marvel and DC. While I have enjoyed the first Lego Batman game, I never picked up the second one (at time of writing) as what little difficulty it had was, from what I've seen, removed when you could play as Superman early on in the game. So why has Lego Batman 3 taken my interest?

To look at the graphics would be a waste of time. Each of the games uses a fusion of Lego and world themed scenery for its levels, with the Lego generally being used on things you can break for studs (in game currency), collectables or to move on in the level and this is no exception. The art style still works for what it needs to do and I wouldn't change it.

Gameplay wise, if you're a DC fan, then your going to love this. While the core gameplay is exactly the same as every other Lego game using this model, the DC coat of paint has made this new and refreshing. The character selection for this is "If its a DC character, you can play as them" The Justice League, Lex Luthor and the Joker, Adam West (with a level inspired by the old Batman TV show), Super dog and more (the Lego games tend to have a very, very, very large roster of characters), the game will primarily take place on the Lanturn home world (i'm not a big Green Lantern fan... don't judge...), the level shown off at E3 was a assult on the villain occupied Watch Tower.

So why am I excited for this? Because I'm a nerd and while I might not be a GL fan, I am a fan of Batman and the Justice League in general. Will I pick this up? Yes... after I've played Batman 2 because this is a continuation of it. Will I review it? Yes. Speaking of reviews, there will be one next week. I am done with the impressions, the next review will be Kickassia.

First Impressions: Mario Party 10

Before I get into the impression, call this irony but considering the reason for it... At the time of writing this, Hellfire comms, in association with other Youtubers, is currently hosting a marathon of Sonic games with all the money generated going to Child's Play. If you have a spare couple of hours, watch the streams (or the recordings if you're like me and am sleeping when they're on) and donate. The commentators are a joy to watch and the games are fun to see. Hell, it might even give you enough of a excuse to play Sonic games. The website for the "Sonic-a-thon" is here (http://hfc-marathons.co.uk/) or you can view the stream directly on Twitch. I do believe the streams are being recorded and going onto Youtube so there is that option as well. With that said, onward with Mario Party 10.

Do you hate your friendship with someone? Then Mario Party has you covered because, chances are, your friendship won't be the same after you play it, if it exists afterwards. Don't let your eyes deceive you, this game will test your patience with its randomness. So why is it still being made? The only answer I can give is money. So how does this new installment look in comparison to the last 9 console games and the 3 games on Nintendo's portable consoles?

So what did the Nintendo Treehouse show off... Not much actually. Most of the presentation was focused on the new mode for the game "Bowser Party", another way to punish your friends for being your friends. Its another 4v1 game, 4 players are in a car... train... thing to get through a game board (like in Mario Party 9) with the 5th player (who uses the Game Pad), who controls Bowser, chasing the kart. If Bowser catches up with said kart, the players in the kart have to survive a "Bowser Mini game". In the mini game, Bowser uses the game pad in some form to try and cut the health of the other 4 players. If a player runs out of health in the mini game, then that player is out and it goes back to board. Players can receive more health in the game board and Bowser can get more dice to roll (default of 4) to increase his chances of catching up to the kart. If all the players in the kart run out of health, Bowser wins, if the kart gets to the end of the stage, the other 4 players win. Half of the game board wasn't allowed to be shown so I can't talk about the game board, but it looks like the board that was shown was a "World 1" from the New Super Mario Bros series esque design.

Rides were also shown off, but not how you actually play them in the boards. they're just mini games to get more mini stars from Mario Party 9 so there isn't that much to talk about. There's also supposed to be a traditional Mario Party mode where its 4 players moving around the board individually,with the standards including Bowser spaces, chance time ect. This moment wasn't shown off so I can't talk about it.

For a 20 minute presentation, not much was shown off so I'm going to stop it there, the game is going to have a 2015 release so its expected to have a lack of information. As I said at the start, give the Sonic-a-thon a look and donate if you can, its going to a good cause. The final impression: Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.

First Impressions: Far Cry 4

Is innovation that scarce in some companies that the only way they can sell a game is if they remake their last game and give it a bigger number? I'm serious about this because the only thing I've seen about Far Cry 4 that's different when comparing it to Far Cry 3 is that it has the number 4 on the box and not what its actually called, Far Cry 3 version 2. I could go on and talk about the trailers that were shown off, even the promotional artwork on steam but... its the same game.

Here's the artwork for Far Cry 3

 

 And here's the artwork for Far Cry 4

Yes, the background is different, but looking at the trailers, its the exact same map. Hell, even the two villains who you can see on the artwork have the exact same personality. This is just lazy development and the only reason why this didn't get more attention was because of Assassin's Creed Unity and its developers being to lazy to create a female assassin model. I know that there are people who were expecting more of a analysis, but I genuinely found nothing new to talk about. I openly admit that I don't play the Far Cry games, but after looking on other review site to get some more information, I don't have to in order to see how lazy this is. Tomorrow, the tenth squeal to a series of games that will ruin friendships (not including portables): Mario Party 10.

First Impressions: Code Name S.T.E.A.M

With a concept as crazy as this, combining American History (kinda), Sci-fi, Steampunk, Comic books, Action RPG, Shooters and Turn based statergy... this 3DS title is... questionable. I'm going to be linking the treehouse video that has more information at the end of this post but I will provide a brief explnation as to my thoughs on the matter.

The artstyle: I'm not a fan of Steampunk in general, I personally prefer futuristic tech, but the art style of S.T.E.A.M is still quite nice for the 3DS. I've been replaying Dragon Quest IX recently and the character models remind me of the 3D models in DQ IX, simplistic but detailed.

The intro cutscene (of the presentation): in true comic book style, its cheesy, its over the top, its funny. Thats all that I can really say on the matter.

Gameplay: The gameplay looks like its going to take some time for fans of turn based games to get used to as there are a lot of differences. The camera is always behind the characters (same as third person shooters), the mobility of the characters is dependent on the amount of steam they have in their tanks, the ability to attack is also affect by the amount of steam so the player will have to balance mobility and attacks. The party of 4 characters seam to have multiple weapons and abilities that they can use during the battle and the power of the attacks can also be edited so that weaker shots use less steam. Height seems to be a core part of gameplay, so that you can no whats happening on the battlefield. Control seems to be touch screen heavy and I didn't see any button controls used in the presentation.

Soundtrack: I couldn't tell what was S.T.E.A.M and what was other games at E3, so i'm not going to say anything about the audio for now.

That's pretty much it for Code Name S.T.E.A.M. Feel free to watch the video for more info on the game if your curious. I'll loo into it some more closer to its release and I'll probably give it a review. Tommorow, the reason why I didn't say much on Far Cry 4.

First Impressions: Yoshi's Woolly World

The art's and crafts art style seems to be relatively popular at the moment, at least for platformers. With the "success" of Kirby's Epic Yarn, it's only fitting that Nintendo would try the formula again for another of their mascots. So how does Yoshi's Woolly World (once known as either Yarn Yoshi or Yoshi's Epic Yarn because of how long fans have know about the project) take the fundamentals of Epic Yarn and update them (based on the trailer).

Well, on the subject of the aesthetics, "thanks to the amazing powers of the WiiU's technology, Yarn Yoshi (as he will now be called throughout the duration of this impression) can be rendered in 3D and is actually a solid mass, not a hollow 2D shell like Yarn Kirby and all the characters in Kirby's Epic Yarn". Yes, Yoshi is solid in this and he still has access to his power of converting enemies into egg projectiles, but the way its done now is actually kinda interesting. As with Epic Yarn, the world uses the wool motif to create hidden unlockable locations. Yoshi can throw his "eggs" at the shells of platforms and fill them in to create something to stand on. Yoshi can use the eggs to hinder some enemies ability to attack (like wrapping the mouth shut on a Piranha Plant) and the eggs can be thrown to clear away what looks like cotton. Some portions of the world can also be converted into eggs to unlock hidden paths and collectables. I've included the trailer at the bottom of the post so feel free to see these move in action along with others.

Aesthetics wise, like Kirby's Epic Yarn, the game looks adorable. I love this kind of aesthetic as you can do whatever you want with it, as shown by the Little Big Planet series. The Yoshi games have always had a sense of cute when it comes to visuals and this is no exception. One of my personal favorite enemies in this is the fire dog at then end of the trailer (which I think is a boss) for that reason, it's adorable... even though it wants to kill me...

I'm not sure if Yoshi's Woolly World is going to keep the "you can't die, you only loose beads" idea that Epic Yarn had, but if it does, I wouldn't mind. I don't care about difficulty in some games, hell I've never had a hard time with a Kirby game so it didn't bother me. The Yoshi games also haven't been a challenge to me so I wouldn't care if the system was brought back. The game still looks like a joy to play so I will be giving it a shot when I can. Because I only have 4 more impressions left to do, every day this week will have a new impression so tomorrow will be Code name S.T.E.A.M. Also, because this post will probably push it over, Blaster's Reviews will have reached the 1000 page view milestone, thank you for reading what I've been posting up here. The reviews will be coming soon, I have a few things planned so enjoy.

First Impressions: Project Spark

Well... who didn't hear of Project Spark, the game that got a lot of hate at E3 (admittedly not as much as Ubisoft's laziness but I'm not going to go into that one). Rare fans were furious with Project Spark, and admittedly for good reason. But before I go into why, lets talk about the rest of the game first.

So what's in Project Spark... I don't know and the developers don't now much either. Its a "Game maker" game, all its content is player created. Imagine Microsoft's Little Big Planet and you have this in a nutshell. Players would be able to create and share content online for other player is use; whether that be to play around in or tinker with. Its a tested concept that does work for games as more and more players want to ease into games development and games like Project Spark help them to do that from a young age. Aesthetic wise, the game looks good. It uses a art style that works well with the amount of assets players can use to make their maps, something that's very hard to do because of how many different assets are in the game. It takes a lot of skill to make medieval assets, futuristic assets and steam punk assets to look good using the same art style (just to name a few that I've seen/ guessing will be in the game.

And now to the controversy behind Project Spark, the elephant in the room. The inclusion of Conker. Conker first appeared in the original Diddy Kong Racing (I'm not sure he was in the remake, because of legal issues) and has appeared in two games of his own. Conker's Bad Fur Day and Conker: Live and Reloaded, a remake of the original. Looks can be deceiving with character as he is probably the least qualified cartoon character to be in a kids game. He has a Alcohol issue, Bad Fur Day had a lot of... humor targeted to a specific demographic (take South Park for example but not as smart and multiply it to get Bad Fur Day. Don't believe me, look up The Great Mighty Poo, you can't miss it). Conker, when he became his own stand alone character, was never intended to be in a kids game. Fans of Rare's work were furious because it would mean that, to them, they would never get a new Conker game similar to the first one and its remake because the character will never be the same again. Personally, I think they might be able to pull it off but the game will get a lot of hate from parents (because the last two didn't...) because of the style of writing the series uses. The question will be, would the ends justify the means for the game. As for Project Spark, I'm going to keep my eye on it and I may review it someday because it is getting a PC release (on windows 8...). It will be time for a change of pace with Sonic Boom next.

The intentional content for Blaster's Reviews

As a slight extension to my post the other day on Blaster's Reviews, I want to briefly explain what is going to become a constant type of post here and how I'm going to structure them. If you don't want to read it, then by all means don't, I'm not forcing you to do so (even though this is also on Blaster's Reviews... hehehe...). But if you do, then feel free to yell at me when I don't meet these in a post going forward and I'll either remake the post or explain why i can't/ couldn't. With that underway

The reviews: The reason why this site is called "Blaster's Reviews". As I said in the very first post of this site, I'm going to review whatever I think I can, whether that be games, TV shows, movies ect. I will always be open to suggestions and I will get to any requests as soon as I can (bare in mind, some might take longer then others if i don't have the material in some way shape or form and can't find a way of reviewing it (for example, I'm not going to review a game until I can play it on its intended console, I'm also not going to review movies while they're at the cinema due to how I write the reviews). I keep a list of reviews that i'm going to do and the order I'm going to release them and any requests will get added to that list. The way I review content is that I have a series of dot points that I add to as a watch/ play, then I structure a review around that and any issues I find, I try and come up with a way to fix that or I leave it up to interpretation. I always review something within its entirety story wise. For a game, I'll review the main campaign and (something I'm going to do from now on) mention any post game content that isn't apart of the story or if its a new story entirely, I'll review that (or what I've gotten done up to the time of writing). I will always review a TV show by its season, as indicated by K-On and the Transformers Marathon. As for movies, I will review movies as a stand alone product but will look at how it fits in with the other films continuing that plot.

The impressions: These are literally just going to be my thoughts as a consumer, not as a reviewer. I'm not going to look at a product like Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as a reviewer until I have my hands on the product released to the public. If I do a impression of something, then don't be surprised if my review says something completely different to the impression. Aside from the E3 impressions, don't expect these to come out at set times, it really just depends on releases and what catches my interest (in most cases), but I will do impressions on topics that I get enough requests for, though they might not have a lot of content in them.

The rants and opinion pieces: There isn't much distinguishing the difference between these. Opinion pieces like the conclusion to the Transformers Marathon are when I've put thought into how something is done whereas a rant is me expressing my views on a particular, current affair concerning the content I review. As with the impressions, don't expect these often but I'm willing to take requests (just assume that I take requests for anything in this post)

Top (Insert number here) lists: I hopefully shouldn't have to explain these.

Just a small thing, what the intentional content on this site is

As a slight extension to my post the other day, I want to briefly explain what is going to become a constant type of post here and how I'm going to structure them. If you don't want to read it, then by all means don't, I'm not forcing you to do so (even though this will also go onto Blaster's Projects... hehehe...). But if you do, then feel free to yell at me when I don't meet these in a post going forward and I'll either remake the post or explain why i can't/ couldn't. With that underway

The reviews: The reason why this site is called "Blaster's Reviews". As I said in the very first post of this site, I'm going to review whatever I think I can, whether that be games, TV shows, movies ect. I will always be open to suggestions and I will get to any requests as soon as I can (bare in mind, some might take longer then others if i don't have the material in some way shape or form and can't find a way of reviewing it (for example, I'm not going to review a game until I can play it on its intended console, I'm also not going to review movies while they're at the cinema due to how I write the reviews). I keep a list of reviews that i'm going to do and the order I'm going to release them and any requests will get added to that list. The way I review content is that I have a series of dot points that I add to as a watch/ play, then I structure a review around that and any issues I find, I try and come up with a way to fix that or I leave it up to interpretation. I always review something within its entirety story wise. For a game, I'll review the main campaign and (something I'm going to do from now on) mention any post game content that isn't apart of the story or if its a new story entirely, I'll review that (or what I've gotten done up to the time of writing). I will always review a TV show by its season, as indicated by K-On and the Transformers Marathon. As for movies, I will review movies as a stand alone product but will look at how it fits in with the other films continuing that plot.

The impressions: These are literally just going to be my thoughts as a consumer, not as a reviewer. I'm not going to look at a product like Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire as a reviewer until I have my hands on the product released to the public. If I do a impression of something, then don't be surprised if my review says something completely different to the impression. Aside from the E3 impressions, don't expect these to come out at set times, it really just depends on releases and what catches my interest (in most cases), but I will do impressions on topics that I get enough requests for, though they might not have a lot of content in them.

The rants and opinion pieces: There isn't much distinguishing the difference between these. Opinion pieces like the conclusion to the Transformers Marathon are when I've put thought into how something is done whereas a rant is me expressing my views on a particular, current affair concerning the content I review. As with the impressions, don't expect these often but I'm willing to take requests (just assume that I take requests for anything in this post)

Top (Insert number here) lists: I hopefully shouldn't have to explain these.

First Impressions: Fable Legends

Is it just me, or is the 4v1 style of multiplayer becoming more and more common now?

Fable Legends was one of the few titles shown off at Microsoft's E3 conference this year that I hadn't seen before and caught my interest. Its a 4v1 online multiplayer RPG, by the looks of it, where its four heroes trying to get through a story while a villain tries to stop them. Simple enough. The 4 heroes seem to play out like a usual Western RPG's heroes, build up your skills, unlock new weapons ect. The villain on the other hand has the power to summon creatures and place them around a tower defense like map in order to stop the heroes from collecting the treasure at the end of the map. I haven't played a Fable game before and I only have a bit of experience in Western RPG's in general, but the game itself looks interesting to play and I only wish it was coming out for PC. As f the time of writing, Lionhead Studios haven't stated that this will come out on any other console and judging by what I know of the Fable series, it isn't coming out on any other consoles. Now before you start saying "Why don't you just buy a X-Box One?" the reason is because of the following:

While I didn't like the policies Microsoft was planning on doing with the X-Box One, I would be ok with buying a X-Box One if they had stuck with their policies, as stupid as they were. I praise risk takers when the risk is a concept and only truly judge said risk by the final product. Because Microsoft got rid of all these policies in the form of a Day 1 patch, it tells me that they didn't have a lot of faith in the ideas and makes me wonder why they were going to do it in the first place. On top of that, I haven't seen a lot of first party X-Box One games I'm genuinely interested in. I'm not buying a console for three games, its not worth it. I want to do reviews on a more serious level someday and when I can, I probably will go out and buy more consoles so that I can review more content, I just can't do that at this point in time.

I'll be posting another Top 10 list latter this week along with a post relating to the structure of the content i'll be doing on a regular basis, which means that I probably won't get to the impression of Project Spark this week, expect that one next week.

First Impressions: Splatoon. Did Nintendo make a new IP?

This is probably going to be the shortest impression here, the reason for this is, like Hyrule Warriors, i'm not keeping up with the news on Splatoon so that i can be surprised. Before I go on though, i'm just going to say these

1. No, I don't intend to do a updated impressions on Smash 4 after the release of the trailer last night. I'll save it for when I do the review. You'll have to wait for my opinions on Lucina, Robin and Captain Falcon's trailer.
2. No, I'm not going to do a new impressions on Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire after its new trailer and Corocoro leaks because I wrote the last one this time last week. You'll have to wait for my thoughts on Mega Metagross and cosplaying Pikachu's (watch the trailer for that one...)

With that out of the way, Splatoon.
From what I've gathered so far of Splatoon, if you've played Team Fortress 2, then you'll feel right at home here (minus control) as its a similar style of shooter (except I think Splatoon is third person instead of first, don't quote me on that one though). The purpose of the game is for your team to cover as much of the arena as possible with your colour ink. You move faster if your in your own colour ink and slower if your in another colour. The way you move faster is by turning into a squid (I swear, I'm not making this up) and in your squid form, you can travel faster, warp from one point to another assuming its covered in your ink, jump higher ect. In your human/ anthropomorphic squid form (still not making this up) you can shoot in using a variety of weapons like a water pistol or a giant roller brush. To say that this is insane is a understatement but seeing as its being tailored for a party game, I don't care, it looks fun. That being said, i'm not going to pay full price for this as I do believe its going to be Multiplayer only so i may or may not do a review on this, it depends on what its going to cost when it comes out here. Up next, contrary to belief I do play other consoles so next is Fable Legends.

First Impressions: Hyrule Warriors

This is a game that was shown off last year that caught my attention. I've never played a Dynasty Warrior games, in fact, I never heard of the franchise until last year. So aside from Legend of Zelda characters, why am I excited for it?

For the people who don't know, the Dynasty Warrior franchise is a tactical RPG. You have to capture areas of the map as one of many character to build up more troops to take more areas. Sounds simple enough? But one character against armies, thousands of enemies at once doesn't sound fair right? That might be the case... if you didn't mow down hundreds of those same enemies with a sword strike. The main characters in this style of gameplay are brutally overpowered, and that's fun to me. There's something satisfying about mowing down armies with basic gear and to see this style used in a Legend of Zelda game looks great.

So what do we know about Hyrule Warriors? We know the playable characters along with most of their new design:

Link design wise is very similar to his Twilight Princess/ Skyward Sword design but now has a nice scarf and a bit of extra armor

Impa: again, very similar to Skyward Sword (young Impa...), extra armor and a GIANT SWORD!!!

Queen Zelda: no, your eyes aren't deceiving you, I did say Queen Zelda, not princess. I can't describe a example of what she looks closest. Just look at the photo. She wields a rapier sword along with her signature Light arrows and Bow.

Midna: The Twilight princess is also playable. Imagine playing as Wolf Link again with even more power and access to weapons like he Hookshot.

Lana: A character designed for Hyrule Warriors, and is a white mage. Specializing in magic.

Agitha: If Sakurai can make a moveset for Pac man, then apparently you can make a moveset for a bug lover...

Fi from Skyward Sword is also playable but I've yet to see her in the game so it might be false

I'm not going to go into the villains as I don't want to spoil myself with the details (go here for information http://zeldawiki.org/Hyrule_Warriors), but the reason why I like the look of the game play.

The video above is a presentation done by Nintendo during E3 on Hyrule Warriors and the game itself looks great to play (I can't stress this enough). I've yet to see a Zelda game (or a game period) where the way to knock a dragon out of the sky IS TO RIP THE MOON FROM MAJORA'S MASK OUT OF THE SKY AND SLAM IT INTO THE DRAGON!!! That's awesome. While I don't have a WiiU yet (soon...), the moment I do get a WiiU, I'm getting this along with Smash 4 (and other games...). I like mindless fun every now and then and being able to mow through thousands of enemies because your overpowered is fun. Do I play these types of games often? No, but do I love playing them? Absolutely. I hope you like ink because next is Splatoon.

The actual first impressions: Pokemon Omega Ruby and Pokemon Alpha Sapphire

Yeah, this has probably been a long time coming but i wanted to finish off the Transformers Marathon before i delved into these, and seeing as I've been promising this one for longer then the others: my thoughts on Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the remakes of Generation III.

Fans have been wanting these remakes since the release of Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver and for a good reason. Contrary to the belief of Generation I fans, not everyone started with Pokemon Red and Blue, in fact the second major wave of fans was in Generation III, people around my age were starting to play the games for the first time. For myself, while the first game I ever played was Yellow on my cousin's Game boy (it might have been a GB Colour but i don't remember off the top of my head) when I was 5, but the first game I ever owned was Emerald version for the Game Boy Advance (GBA Wide is still the best, regardless of its lack of back light) on my 10th birthday, so yes, I started my "Pokemon journey" when I turned 10 years old. The other major reason for fans wanting the remakes is that all the regions would be either directly connected to, or need a extra step to sync it to, the Pokemon Bank. At the moment, to transfer a Pokemon from Ruby/ Sapphire or Emerald into X and Y, you would need to transfer it to a Generation IV game (Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heart Gold or Soul Silver), then to a Generation V game (Black, White, Black 2 or White 2) and then to the Pokemon bank to send it to X and Y. I don't know about others, but i personally hate the Gen IV-V mini game so the less I have to do that pain, the better.

I'll run through the list of what we know based on the trailers and Corocoro leaks we've gotten up till now (8th of July as of writing this, no i don't keep a large backlog at the moment...)

The Graphics and Aesthetics: Its obvious that this is running off of X and Y's engine, and seeing as this was most likely being developed at the same time as X and Y, I'm not surprised. From the screenshots that we have (thank you Serebii), it looks like the only major changes to the world is more detail in the X and Y assets, which isn't a bad thing, I liked the way X and Y looked

The character redesigns: The character designs... I'm still getting used to as a whole. I don't outright hate them, a lot of them look great. I love how Team Aqua looks now (Archie in particular looks great, but he reminds me of Riku's D-mode from Kingdom Hearts I and Chain of Memories, though that could just be me). The other members of Team Aqua look great and feel more like Pirates then they ever did in R/S/E. Team Magma on the other hand, I'm not as sold on. The grunts look fine, and Maxie has been growing on me, my issue is Courtney and Tabitha. Courtney looks like she was a Team Flare reject now whereas before, she looked like a bad ass (though that might because of how she was portrayed in the Adventures Manga, where she was a bad ass...). Tabitha on the other hand "GO ON A F&(@%^* DIET YOU FAT ASS!!! Another character that looked awesome in R/S/E, now looks like he was in Mcdonalds for 3 days and ate nothing but cheeseburgers, why?

Steven Stone: he hasn't changed (in terms of design), it is believed that he will serve as the way for the player to use Mega Evolution in the game, which I like the idea of as it fits his personality and love of stones.

Brendan and May: More characters that have been growing on me since their reveal. They look nice and admittedly, its probably my nostalgia for their Emerald designs that are holding me back from loving these new designs. They're more tamed then the redesigns Blue/Green/Leaf and Kris got in Fire Red/ Leaf green and Heart Gold/ Soul Silver respectively so i am grateful about that.

The New Mega forms and Primal Forms: (all of these are based on their abilities and design, I'm not including stats)

• Mega Sceptile: I love how Mega Sceptile looks in this and the loss of its tail leaves during battle is a nice touch. I'm not a fan of it having Lightning rod as its ability but that's because i don't see it being used often in battles (personal opinion, don't hate me for it)
• Mega Swampert: First: "Do you even lift bro?" (I couldn't help myself...). Design wise, slowly growing on me, its not the worst Mega form I've seen but it also isn't the best. As for its ability, I DON'T SEE HOW A BULKY THING LIKE MEGA SWAMPERT COULD MOVE FAST, REGARDLESS OF WHERE HE IS AND THE WEATHER (its Swift Swim)
• Mega Diancie: I'm not making a opinion yet about Diancie as i haven't used its regular form so I don't know how this improves it.
• Mega Sableye: "I wonder how long it will be until Link comes to get that Rupee" (...I'll stop now...). Design wise, it looks good when comparing it to Sableye's original design and one thing i would personally like to see with it is that the gem its holding and the eye gem colours change depending on which game your playing. Red in Omega Ruby and Blue in Alpha Sapphire. I do like the fact that it has Magic Bounce, which means that Mega Sableye could make for a viable lead pokemon if your opponent loves using Hazards.
• Primal forms: At this point in time, I get the feeling that its a redundant form of Mega Evolution and that Mega Aerodactal will get reclassified as Primal Aerodactal.
• Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre: Both of them look great, I love the way they look. My big problem with these two is Primal Groudon's typing: Ground/ Fire which means that it has a 4x weakness to water, so unless Groudon gets a massive buff to its defensive stats, then Groudon won't be winning to Kyogre any time soon...

As for the new map: I love it, but i was never going to hate it. I love that the sea routes between Mossdeap, Sootopolis, Ever grande and Pasifilog look great and looks like it will have more exploration in it then the originals (less empty).

That's it for now, my impressions on all the information we have so far on Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. I might do another if we get another substantial info dump before release but otherwise, wait for a review (as I will be getting a copy of the game, preferably at launch). The next impression latter this week: Hyrule Warriors.

The Individual impressions that will be coming

So with E3 finished for 2014, I'm going to be covering some of the individual games shown off that I thought looked interesting. I won't be including games that I already done impressions on (Smash 4 and Arkham Knight) and these will be posted after the Transformers Marathon.

The titles include...
Pokémon Omega Ruby/ Alpha Sapphire, Hyrule Warriors, Splatoon, Fable Legends, Project Spark, Sonic Boom, Yoshi's Woolly World, Code Name S.T.E.A.M, Far Cry 4 ( as I don't think the impressions I have don't during the conferences do it justice), Mario Party 10 and Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. I am willing to provide in depth opinions on requests if anyone would like me to but otherwise these will be the games I cover.

E3 2014: Ubisoft... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ubisoft

1.       Far Cry 4: I don’t personally care about Far cry. It looks to be the same as prior instalments

2.       Aisha Tyler: It sounds like she has been given more freedom when it comes to hosting the show and while they are funny in comparison to previous years, to me, the jokes aren’t funny, with a few exceptions. The background image on the screen looks like a lazy desktop background.

3.       Just Dance 2015: More Just Dace... next?

4.       Tom Clancy: The Division: See Microsoft press conference

5.       The Crew: Could you tell us more about the game that you haven’t previously announced?

6.       Assassin’s Creed: Unity: See X-Bone’s conference (this is becoming a pattern...)

7.       Shape Up: Its Ubisoft’s attempt at Wii Fit and it does look interesting, will I play it, probably not. But its the best game so far in this conference because I haven’t seen it before

8.       Valiant Hearts: The Great War: the game looks great (using the same engine as Rayman Legends and Child of Light), the trailer was great, but no gameplay...

9.       Tom Clancy: Rainbow Six Siege: I’m not going to make a opinion on a game that’s in alpha where we only saw a multiplayer game

This was boring to be honest. Most of the games shown were already shown off or unveiled and the new games were just bleak. I’m going to be spilling into next week for individual impressions on games and what I can find of the show floor. I will also be continuing the Transformers Marathon with Transformers: Energon so until then...

E3 2014 Impressions: SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS

EA E3 2014 Press conference

For note, I am skipping any information on the EA sports games

1.       Starwars Battlefront: Well... it was a nice snippet of footage from a documentary...

2.       Dragon Age: Inquisition: Ok, you’ve made a pretty world EA... Now what? The gameplay that was shown struck me as Multi person, third person perspective Skyrim. I haven’t played a Dragon Age so I don’t know if it’s normally like that or not. As I said in the Microsoft impression, it looks interesting

3.       The Sims 4: Because I have never played any form of The Sims, most of the improvements that were said meant nothing to me. The Sims AI has improved and you can now play with their emotions, that all that I retained

4.       EA UFC: The only sports game here because it is a new one (to my knowledge). Its UFC the game

5.       New Criterion IP: Its really early in development according to the trailer, but it looks fun and I’ll pick it up when I can as it has a Need for Speed Underground 2/ Burnout 3 feel about it (both of those are great PS2 games, pick them up when you can)

6.       Dawngate: I’m not a MOBA gamer, but if you like MOBA games like Dota 2, you’ll like this... maybe

7.       Mirror’s Edge: See Starwars Battlefront

8.       Battlefield Hardline: I stand by what I said before

This press conference was dull. Battlefield took up so much of the conference and EA Sports took up even more. I never look forward to EA’s conference every year and its reasons like this conference that’s the reason why. There were more games, but they were EA Sports. The finale of the press conferences is Ubisoft and I’m not liking the sound of it...

Also, just hit 400 page views, thankyou all for keeping up with these reviews and impressions.

The final of the big three:Impressions on the Nintendo Digital Event

 Nintendo Digital Event

1.       Intro Stop motion and filler: the stop motions are comical and shows off the fan opinions of Reggie while also, possibly, highlighting Nintendo’s opinions on franchises the fans want to return

2.       Super Smash bros Mii announcements: It was awsome seeing Iwata fighting Reggie in its intro (the effects were great, purely because they were over the top), then to highlight the Mii use in Smash 4 before Sakurai clarifies. The Mii Fighters themselves look interesting to play as. You can play as a Brawler (fast, but powerful melee combat with little range), a swordfighter (faster, but weaker then the Brawler, but use weapons like swords) and a gunner (great range, sports multiple ranged attacks but they might not have many good melee attacks). (note that this is all speculation). The Mii’s also appear to have customisable special moves, giving players the ability to swap between 36 specials between the three types of fighters. We also have a release day for the 3DS version... October 3^rd 2014. I don’t have high hopes for a Christmas with Smash bros WiiU after seeing this one...

3.       Amiibo: Nintendo’s answers to Skylanders and Disney Infinity. During the direct, there wasn’t a lot shown off but they did mention that they would be discussing it more latter on in E3 so expect a post providing more info latter. The Mario figure looks great though. We also know that Smash 4 and Mario Kart 8 will use Amiibo somehow (Captain Falcon in Mario Kart?). Also, I do believe the Mario Kart 8 footage, highlighting Luigi’s death stare was intentional and another great joke in this (unlike the last two, I’ve already watched this once so I can give more info)

4.       Yoshi’s Woolly World: (Try saying that 3x fast). I haven’t played a lot of Yoshi games (I’m yet to finish a single game...) but this new game does interest me. It looks great and like Kirby’s Epic Yarn, the wool motif works well in this and is incorporated well in the puzzles (from what we’ve seen). The plush Yarn Yoshi’s that were shown off look amazing (both in game and the real life ones that were used as a demonstration).

5.       Captain Toad’s Treasure Tracker: Are you happy Captain Toad fans. If you’ve played 3D World’s captain toad levels, then you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into with this as that’s all that is in this game. It does look more refined as there are more things to do, but it’s Captain Toad.

6.       Legend of Zelda (WiiU): It looks beautiful, from what we saw, and it sounds like it’s going back to a progression similar to the original Zelda. Apart from that, we still don’t know a lot.

7.       Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: latter...

8.       Bayonetta 2: The gameplay still looks great from when we saw it at E3 last year, the inclusion of the first game was a good idea as there are people (like myself) who will be getting the game but haven’t played the first. There will alos be Nintendo costumes for Bayonetta like Peach, Link and Samus, each with their own added Nintendo touches. Bayonetta also has a October 2014 release so we finally have a release window.

9.       Hyrule Warriors: Zelda and Midna are playable alongside Link and Impa. It looks great (so good its giving me a excuse to play Dynasty warriors). The character designs for Link, Impa and Zelda look great, they are different but you still know who they are if you’re a Zelda fan. All that we have to do is wait until September 26^th, which is its current release day.

10.   Kirby and the Rainbow Cruise: If you have played Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Kirby Canvas curse, then you know what your getting yourself into with this WiiU title. It plays similar to Canvas Curse but also shares a trait with Epic Yarn in the form of form changes like Rocket and Tank. I do like the Clay art style with this but I wasn’t a fan of Canvas Curse, I might pick it up when I get a WiiU but there’s a strong chance I wont

11.   Xenoblade Chronicles X: Another game I haven’t had experience with its predecessor before hand, Xenoblade X does look good, but I’m not sure if it’s a CG trailer or if it’s in game footage. Its supposedly going to becoming in 2015 so I could change my mind between now and its launch.

12.   Mario Maker: Ever wanted to make your own 2D Mario levels? Now you can with this...

13.   Splatoon: A NEW IP FROM NINTENDO!!! Also, “Salty’s Splatoon, how tough are you?” Splatoon is a kid friendly version of Third person shooters. You shoot ink, try and cover the most terrain with your ink to win. You can turn into a squid that can travel fast through your own coloured ink. The concept seems wierd, but I’m curious about it.

14.   Palutena’s reveal: I knew this was coming, Palutena was leaked months ago. But it is a great trailer, not one of my favourites in comparison to the other reveals, but still great. She looks like a great fighter and will all the Kid Icarus Uprising banter that was in it. She is yet another character that I’m going to play as when I get the game. The art style for the trailer is the anime style used in the mini Kid Icarus videos on the, now gone, Nintendo Video app on the 3DS. I’m not too sure what to make of Dark pit at the end of the trailer though...

15.   Miyamoto at the end: On the show floor, I have no idea based on the Digital event.

From what I’ve seen so far of E3, this was better than the last two conferences that I’ve covered. There was a lot of time dedicated to games that needed it and the games that just had a trailer, like Bayonetta 2 and Pokémon Omega Ruby/ Alpha Sapphire didn’t need any more information to be shown off then.  The Stop motion animations were genuinely funny and while it wasn’t a conference. It was still great, even I it was only a portion of the news. I’m going to be doing the last two conferences before I try and collect info on the show floor (which might be limited to Nintendo, but I will try and get more info). The next conference: SPORTS SPORTS SPORTS!!!

Sony at E3 2014. Impressions on the conference (or what i could see when the stream didn't glitch...

Sony Press Conference 2014

Pre show

1.       Killzone DLC: Never cared about Killzone, don’t care now

Actual Show (there were errors on Polaris’s stream so I’ll do a update with whatever I missed)

1.       Destiny: looks a lot like the original Halo trilogy, it looks great and something that I would pick up. The Beta is available July 17th

2.       The Order: Amnesia with Werewolf Zombies?

3.       Entwined: Tempest with Origami... I think. Its pretty at least

4.       Infamous First Light: Its Imfamous

5.       Little Big Planet 3: The new characters look interesting and they look like they could add a lot to the LBP formula. The game itself looks great

6.       Bloodborn:  1800’s Zombies

7.       Farcry 4: The world looks nice, in terms of gameplay: It looks like it plays like any other FPS

8.       Dead Island 2: Getting really sick of Zombies...

9.       Diablo III: Ultimate Evil edition: all the DLC for PS4

10.   Battlefield Hardline: Cops and Robbers. Nuff said

11.   Magika 2: It looks interesting, but I can’t talk much about it from the conference

12.   Grim Fandango remastered: Interesting, but there wasn’t anything to show

13.   Devolver: The games look interesting, and worth playing

14.   Let it Die: Suda51... What drug have you been taking now?

15.   ABZU: Journey, but this time under water

16.   No Man’s Sky: Interesting, but I’m not sold on the art style

17.   Direct Uploads to YouTube and Twitch: it will be helpful for Lets players and Streamers

18.   Making Free to play games best on PS4: JUST AS LONG AS THEY ARE ACTUALLY FREE TO PLAY!!!

19.   PS Now on selected Sony TV’s: Eh...

20.   Playstation TV: Stream lagged so all that I know is that its similar to a Playstation console

21.   Mortal Kombat X: Gore much?

22.   Powers: new graphic novel story/ TV show on the PS4. It looks interesting... from the concept art

23.   Ratchet and Clank the movie: it looks funny but there wasn’t a lot shown off

24.   Last of us Remastered: its Last of us, IN EVEN BETTER HD GRAPHICS!!! WITH THE DLC INCLUDED...

25.    Metal Gear Solid 5 The Phantom Pain: It looks great, even if the trailer was just a CG trailer and no game play

26.   Grand Theft Auto 5 for PS4: its GTA 5...

27.   Batman Arkham Knight: Gotham looks amazing but JESUS CHRIST SCARECROW!!!

28.   Uncharted 4 A thief’s end: Is this the end of Uncharted, because the trailer gave off that impression

Because of other commitments, next will be Nintendo. The Conference itself was ok, but a bit mediocre in comparison to last year's

E3 2014 Impressions. Microsoft and the X-Bone...

Microsoft E3 2014 brief summary of what they showed off in 90 minutes

1.       Stage=mediocre (basic seats closer to the main stage but that could just be because of the venue). The light wrists on all the attendants was a good idea and worked well with some of the game presentations

2.       Intro speech by Phil Spencer = It was a good speech and a good crowd pleaser

3.       Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare= Don’t care, its the same style of trailer from all the other E3 COD news, stand stock gameplay. Took up to much of the conference considering what it was showing off

4.       Dan Greenawalt (Forza Hrizon 2 and Forza 5)= New Free DLC with the iconic racing track. Forza Horizon 2= Nice world, but seen the concept before with the Need for Speed franchise (PS2). Interested to see the definition of Open world freedom

5.       Evolve= Team fortress 2 meets Left 4 dead meets Alien. Looks nice but would have to see other reviews before considering getting it as its a X-Box exclusive for now.

6.       Vincent Pontbiand (Assassins Creed Unity): Assassins Creed in French revolution.  Nothing else new

7.       Dragon Age Inquisition: It looks interesting, pretty and if I had a X-Box One (or if I planned to get one, I would pick it up as it looks interesting).

8.        Sunset Overdrive: Same with Dragon Age Inquisition. Looks good and fun to play, would pick it up if I was going to get the console. It was also a funny trailer showing that there is still some humour left in the games on X-Box One.

9.       Cheesy comical DLC trailer for Dead Rising 3 is cheesy. The DLC looks good and if you like Dead Rising 3, I’d pick it up if I were you.

10.   Fantasia Music Evolved: (What is this madness, a game for the 360 here?). The Concept sound like it could be clunky

11.   Dance Central Spotlight: Already giving alarm bells for me as its digital only (though that could just be my experiences with bad Australian internet). Both Dance Central and Fantasia didn’t have a any form of gameplay or a trailer so I’m a bit concerned.

12.   David Eckelberry (Fable Legends): Expect a full impression for this one latter

13.   Project Spark: User Generated content: the game, though it does look pretty and since its coming to PC, I might check it out. Plus it has Conker in it...

14.   Ori and the Blind Forest: (Try not to cry, cry a lot...) beautiful orchestral piece in the background, gorgeous graphics and it looks to be a platformer (from the small amount of time there was gameplay shown). But its a X-Box One exclusive...

15.   Bonnie Ross (Halo) Halo 5 Trailer was vague like last year, Halo: Master chief collection= All past Halo games (main games) on X-Box One. Will include Halo Nightfall and Halo 5 Guardians beta

16.   Inside: I have no idea what to say on this

17.   ID@XBOX: Indie games on X-Box via self publishing

18.   Indiegames; You’ll have to look at this one for yourself as there are too many for me to list

19.   Rise of the Tomb Raider: Just a CG Trailer

20.   Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: More Witcher for you witcher fans. I can’t compare it to the last game as I haven’t played it

21.   Phantom Dust: Pure CG, I have no idea of how the game will play

22.   Tom Clancy’s The Division:  Tom Clancy meets post apocalyptic future

23.   Scalebound: Monster Hunter with Skin morph?

24.   Crackdown: Futuristic weaponry with a Saint’s Row style graphics. It looks interesting

25.   The developer videos that separated some of the games were good. I wished there was more of them as I needed a break just so that I could type these brief summaries.

They promised a lot of games, they delivered a lot of games. The conference was good but it needed to be paced better. I don’t think Crackdown should have been the finale for the conference considering what they showed off prior to it and what they showed off of it to begin with. It was good, if your a Microsoft fan then you should be excited for what’s to come. Up next Sony (because I’m trying to play catch up and its starting in 20 minutes)