E3 2016 – Part 1

E3 2016 started off with a whimper, but then went out in a huge bang basically setting the stage for the second day of E3. Starting off the show on Sunday was the EA press conference, which was a first for EA who usually shows after the Microsoft show on Mondays. After that was a few more reveals that didn’t hit the main stage of E3, before Bethesda closed the night with their press conference. Here’s a recap of what’s happened so far.

Before the Show

Long before the EA press conference even started, Titanfall 2 was leaked online. Both the standard multiplayer trailer was revealed along with the brand new single player campaign trailer was revealed. It showed that the game had a release date of 10-28-2016 and would be available for all platforms. I wasn’t all that impressed with the multiplayer or the single player based on what I saw and to me it just seemed like a version of Transformers. I wasn’t really upset when the first one wasn’t released on the PS4, so I’ll go ahead and just pass on this one as well.

EA Press Conference

Kicking off the EA press conference was Titanfall 2. I guess this was supposed to have a big impact but because of the leak, it really failed. Watching both trailers a second time it just made me think that this was just another Call of Duty type game with robots. After seeing the trailers again, I knew I wasn’t going to be missing this one when I passed it up. Next up was the, wait for the surprise, new Madden 17 game! There was some talk of gaming events for those of us gamers who are non-professional before highlighting the eSports professional gamers. At this point in the press conference I was just desperate to see some games.

After all the Madden stuff came Mass Effect: Andromeda. Finally! What I had ben waiting for all week long. I wanted to see more after the trailer last year and was hoping that BioWare would deliver. What we got was information that you would be the so-called alien as you traveled to a new land that needed to be colonized for humans. This allows you to travel to a new galaxy and forget about that ultra-important main character from the last series. What was her name again…it started with an S…oh yeah Shepard. Forget about Shepard though because with ME:A you’ll have a whole new cast, new alien races, and new exploration all on the FrostByte engine. While there was some new gameplay footage it was far and in-between the shots of random people working on the game. There was a new Asari looking alien along with an unmasked human female waking up on a ship. Other than that it was said that more information would be released in the fall which meant no release date, no actual trailer, and really nothing. Total disappointment.

Up next was FIFA, or as I like to call it, another chance for a brief zone out time. This year though they’ve added a sort of RPG element to FIFA which I guess is supposed to make it more appealing to a larger audience. I’m still not interested in this game though or the amount of attention that it was given. Then came the new EA Originals section which was set up to help small developers make the games of their dreams due to the success of Unravel. With that announcement came what’s supposed to be the next Unravel, called Fe. While this seems to be a more open world type game where you’re supposed to explore this forest as a Cub and unlock different songs that are trying to be destroyed by the bad guys, I’m not sure this will have the same impact as Unravel did and I’m not really as interested in it as I was for Unravel.

Finally to start wrapping up the conference, EA touched base on all of the Star Wars type games and concepts all in the works with the soonest coming out in late 2017 and the furthest away coming out sometime in 2018. Along with this there was another trailer of people working. No one wants to see people working, people come to these things to see actual game play footage and trailers. Then there was the big Battlefield 1 segment to end the conference. Even though this game doesn’t interest me I think that basing it during World War I is a bold move that will pay off in the end for them. The game looks great and they know it.

That was it for the EA conference and I have to say that it was the most disappointing start to E3 that I’ve ever seen. If you’re going to start off E3 then you need to have some major announcements and you have to do something huge. EA did not deliver in anyway and I thought it put a little bit of a damper on the rest of the day.

The In-Between

Being the small company that they are, even though they like to tackle these huge projects that sometimes work out and sometimes don’t, Telltale decided to do a small reveal on their upcoming season of The Walking Dead. Tuning in early, I had been waiting for this. There was so many ways that Season 2 could have ended that I wanted to see where they were going. I was mostly disappointed when what was really talked about was the new Batman game coming out because of the screenshots that were released earlier in the day. The art style for the new Batman game is typical for Telltale and they promise that this is their own story where you’ll play as both Bruce and Batman and it’s not based on the comics or the movies. Troy Baker was announced to be the lead in this game, huge surprise as I roll my eyes, and that it wouldn’t run off of a not new engine, but an improved one. Apparently each episode will feel like a movie so you’ll be getting 5 movies, unless of course they think they can make more money and then they’ll be DLC. That’s how it works now right?

Finally the first look at The Walking Dead Season 3. An extremely small trailer is shown which at first makes you think that it’s nothing until the big reveal of a teenage Clementine. Telltale says that with this game they’re coming close to where the comic books are and the show is basically at. There’s a new super important sub character with Clementine and it takes place years after the events of Season 2. Even though I’ve been giving Telltale some major shade after the past couple of games, I’m really looking forward to season 3.

Bethesda Press Conference

To close the night was the Bethesda press conference which stated out with a bang, take notes EA because this is how you start your press conference. A huge new trailer for Quake Champions was shown and it looks like a bloody mess of gaming fun. I don’t like full on multiplayers most of the time, but I can see myself getting into this game. After that was a few highlights of the super successful Bethesda year that kicked off a year ago at E3 2015. There was a small focus on The Elder Scrolls Legends, which is a card game which I found similar to maybe Gwent, but it really held no interest for me even though it’s story based and has a single player and multiplayer campaign.

KUDOS: This goes out to the whole Bethesda team who wore LGBT ribbons following the events of what happened on Sunday morning. I didn’t see anyone else do this at their shows and they were the first. This meant a lot and I thank them.

Moving on was some Fallout 4 DLC news. There was the small announcement of Contraptions that looks overall goofy but nonetheless fun as it adds more building components into the game. Then there was another similar DLC called Vault-Tech. Now this is pretty damn cool because it allows you to build your own vault, make your settlers into dwellers and do research projects on them. Then came the next big story based DLC. It was a huge WTF moment for me as it was announced as an Amusement Park! Not all that much was shown but I’m super excited and I can’t wait. There was also talk of more updates to Fallout Shelter which I played briefly but became bored with. Right after that was the reveal of what I had been hoping for out of this press conference…The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Remaster! The game looks visually stunning and absolutely beautiful when it was compared to the last gen rendition of the game. This game will be available on 10-28-2016 and it’s a day one purchase for me and the countdown starts now. Isn’t there another game coming out on the same day…something Titanfall 2…I can’t even remember.

This was followed by the introduce of Prey a new sci-fi thriller that seems like it’s part Dead Space and part The Darkness. It comes out next year, but I’ll probably pass on it. Some information about Doom was up next including more information about Doom Snapmap which will be free along with some multiplayer DLC before the paid multiplayer DLC comes out. There was a brief section about The Elder Scrolls: Online and all the progress that has been made along with the new DLC that is coming out for this game. I know I kind of gave up on this game, but I might just have to get back into it eventually.

There was the surprise announcement of Bethesda VR as they join the rest of the world in the VR craze which I’m not sure is going to be a good move or not. Although I would like to play Fallout 4 VR style, I’m still not sure. To end the show was Dishonored 2. A new trailer was shown along with a bunch of new game play and a release date of 11-11-2016. I never got a chance to actually play the first one and the way this game looks, I want to try and play the first one before this one comes out because it looks awesome.

And that was day one of E3. Bethesda was the big winner of the day as they show off what people really want which is trailers and actual gameplay of their upcoming games. For a company that this is their second show they come off looking like pros while EA suffers a huge setback this year and I wouldn’t be all surprised if they’re called the losers of the show this year. Keep checking back for more E3 information as this huge week of gaming goes by!

Frequently Asked Video Game Questions – What is the hardest trophy to get in The Elder Scrolls: Online?

Submitted by Anonymous – What is the hardest trophy to get in The Elder Scrolls: Online?

While I kind of gave up on The Elder Scrolls: Online a week after it was released and was never really able to get back into it, mostly because of all the problems the servers were having, I would have to say that Emperor! would be the hardest trophy to get. Emperor! requires that you “dominate the Alliance War battlefield and become Emperor of Tamriel.” In actuality what you have to do while in this game mode is to take control of all six surrounding fortresses, which sounds easy enough, but in order to become Emperor you also have to have the highest amount of points within your alliance. Having the highest amount of points sounds like one of the more difficult tasks depending on who you’re playing with. Play with a super awesome team and someone else will probably get the trophy, play with a really crappy team and it seems like you wouldn’t be able to take control of all six surrounding fortresses. It’s kind of a lose-lose situation unless you’re a pretty badass player. Either way out of the whole trophy list, this is the one that seems the hardest because it’s a half skill half luck based trophy where all the other trophies are pretty achievable and just require a lot of grinding.

Have a video game question that you want answered? Go ahead and leave your question in the comment section below and I’ll make sure to add your name into the blog that features your question. If you prefer to be anonymous, then go ahead and type your question into the search box. I’ll be able to see it and maybe one day you’ll be able to see it on this blog.

Pet Peeve: Huge Day One Patches

I never really had a problem with day one patches. It was just something that I expected when I installed a new game and I never really minded as long as it made the game run better and hopefully problem free. What I do have a problem with though is this new introduction of these HUGE day one patches. You know the ones that I’m talking about, they’re the ones that take up just way to much memory and take way to long to download. At first it just seemed like a rare occurrence, but now these patches just seem to be getting larger and larger and a little to frequent for me.

The first time I ever really noticed a huge patch that needed to be downloaded when I got a game on release was Borderlands: The Handsome Collection. I install the game into my system and of course there’s a patch. Not a problem right? Wrong. The patch was 8.3GB. 8.3GB! Do you know how much space that takes up on a system that is already way over crowded. A lot, so much that it left me with only a few GB left on my system as a whole. Even though I was annoyed at this I was able to understand why this patch was so huge. A new DLC for The Pre-Sequel, Claptastic Voyage, had to be downloaded. My annoyance quickly faded while I waited patiently, a little over 2 hours, for this patch to download.

After my experience with Borderlands: The Handsome Collection, I once more didn’t have a problem with any day one patches. Nothing seemed overly large or unreasonable until the time came to install The Elder Scrolls Online day one patch. After deleting a bunch of games from my system just to fit the required install size, what pops up? A day one patch. Figuring that it couldn’t be that bad, I check out my download queue to see just how long it’s going to take since I was eager to play and to my surprise, the patch is 15GB. Almost double the Borderlands: The Handsome Collection day one patch. What the hell! After waiting just about 4 hours for this patch to download, I didn’t even want to start the game.

When does it come to the point where day one patches are just too big and in a way ruin the initial game playing experience? I would have to say that anything over 5GB, I’m being really lenient here, is just way to big and just uncalled for. Patches are supposed to fix stability issues, framerate issues, and other technical problems and if a day one patch is over 5GB it makes me wonder what is really going on with the game that I’m so eager to play. Are there going to be a lot of problems? Will the game constantly crash? What’s wrong with the game that it requires that big of a fix on release day.

Huge day one patches also make me think that a game just wasn’t ready for release and should have probably been delayed just a little longer in order to make things perfect. In a time where everything is fixed after release with a patch, when is enough enough? It’s my hope that The Elder Scrolls Online isn’t setting any kind of precedent for other games, don’t even get me started on the latest patch that was also over 15GB, because it sets a bad example. Huge patches that gamers just accept tell other developers that they can be lazy and slack off with fixing problems before a game is released because hey if there’s a problem they could always release a 15+GB patch day one.

This Week in Trophies 06-14-2015 – 06-20-2015

While I’m continuing to play The Elder Scrolls Online every once in a while, I kind of got tired waiting to log in all the time and decided to start a not so new game this week for those times when I don’t feel like waiting to log in, which in most cases I really don’t feel like waiting around to play a game so I just don’t play. The start of a new game usually means a bunch of trophies, so this week was ok when it came to trophies. It wasn’t great, but here’s how my week played out.

The Elder Scrolls Online – 5%

I was able to get one random trophy this week along with a story mission trophy. While I’m progressing in the game it just seems like it’s taking a really long time and I always get side tracked when I enter a new area, probably because there are a bunch of side missions that I always get stuck doing. Anyway, I’m still enjoying my time doing random stuff, but I just haven’t been playing all that much.

Sparkle 2 – 61%

I finished up my hard playthrough this week and I’m currently working on my nightmare playthrough before I start the survival and challenge modes. Even though this is the third time I’m playing this game, I’m really enjoying it and I look forward to finishing it so that I can start Sparkle Unleashed on the PS4.

Rollers of the Realm – 70%

I started playing this game again this week because I recently seen that a patch downloaded for this game. Hoping that this patch cleared up some of the trophy issues that I was having, I was glad to see that after a few frustrating rounds of arena I was able to get a trophy that I should have gotten a long time ago. Since this game and it’s trophies are now functioning properly I’ll continue to play and hopefully be able to get the 100%.

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection – Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel – 12%

I started this because it was sitting on my PS4 taking up space, plus I needed something new to play while I played The Elder Scrolls Online. Sometimes it’s just like that where you can’t strictly play just one game. Besides, I always like getting back into Borderlands and in this game I really enjoy playing as Athena because let’s face it, her shield is just badass.

So for this upcoming week I will continue to make my way through Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. I’m not really sure if I’ll be getting the platinum for this game since I don’t even have the platinum for this on the PS3, but you never know. I’ll also be continuing my journey through The Elder Scrolls Online while playing Sparkle 2 and Rollers of the Realm in between.

Weekly Trophy Tip – The Elder Scrolls Online – Cut and Run

While most of the trophies for this game are extremely time consuming and just require a ton of work, this trophy really requires neither. You can basically get this trophy any time after you complete the first main mission, so why not just go for it as soon as possible?

The Elder Scrolls Online – Cut and Run
Successfully escape a guard after choosing the flee option in the Accost Dialogue Window – Bronze
TIP: After you finish the first main mission and finally get a chance to run around on your own, that is if you can actually log into the server and play the game, just steal something. Anything. Just make sure that you’re visible and not hidden and that someone actually sees you. Once you do this just wait until you get stopped by a guard. Once you do you have the option to flee. Watch the timer on the flee option because you only have 15 seconds to select it. Once you do I suggest running very quickly until your stamina bar just runs out. I found that in order to escape a guard it seems better to be standing on something you can easily jump off of when you’re approached by the guard. That way you can be sure that the guard won’t follow you. When you escape you’ll get the trophy and you’ll have the next guard that you meet try to kill you. The guard that tries to kill you will most likely be successful, but at least you can respawn with some minimum wear and tear on your equipment.

Have anything additional to add to my tip? Let me know in the comments section below and I’ll add it in and give you credit. Need help with a specific trophy? I’m always looking for my next weeks tip so throw out some suggestions in the comments section. If I have the trophy I’ll post a tip on how to get it.

This Week in Trophies 6-07-2015 – 6-13-2015

Even though I got my 40th platinum trophy this week, it still feels like a pretty crappy week for trophies. All I really did was finish Far Cry 4 and start The Elder Scrolls Online for a total of…wait for it…wait for it…15 trophies. Not really a lot especially for a whole week. Anyway, here’s a break down of my trophies for the week.

Far Cry 4 – 84%

I finally finished this game this week and it was really no easy task. I spent hours upon hours trying to get my one last trophy and it felt like a complete waste of time which is why I hate multiplayer and co-op trophies. After finally starting a gaming session, I was able to get my last trophy that I needed and the platinum. Thank you to the really great player who helped me get my last trophy even though he already had the platinum.

The Elder Scrolls Online – 2%

The day has finally arrived that I was able to play The Elder Scrolls Online! Not only did I have to download a 15.8GB patch on release day that took over 4 hours to actually download, but I also had to eliminate 3 games from my system to accommodate the 75GB minimum requirement to even play the game. Crazy right? Not as crazy as sitting in a queue most of the time waiting to log in. The 1 second wait time and your number 1 spot in the queue is a total lie as you’ll spend over 30 minutes just waiting to log in. Once you finally get a chance to log in, the game isn’t bad. It isn’t spectacular or the best game that I ever played, but it’s not bad. Skyrim this is not and it’s really not even close, but it’s a decent game. There are a bunch of things to do and at the moment I’m enjoying it.

That was it for this pretty crappy trophy week, I’m going to continue to play The Elder Scrolls Online and hopefully this waiting time problem will clear up in the near future. I’ll also continue to play Sparkle 2 on the PS3 and hopefully get a couple of trophies from that game. I’ll also probably try to start a new game this week I’m just not sure what. I have my selection narrowed down between Borderlands: The Handsome Collection – The Pre-Sequel or The LEGO Movie Videogame. I might even consider going back and finishing up something that’s already on my gamer card.