Episode 266: Get That E3 Kick

Jonah Falcon and Paul S. Nowak return from the magical E3 2012 videogame convention and everyone has their own opinions on what they thought were the highlights and lowlights of E3. They also make their own predictions, as Dan Quick contemplates writing hate mail to Jonah for having access to SimCity and Need for Speed: Most Wanted.

The podcast also features some great news, including:

  • THQ closes their San Diego Studio, sells the UFC license
  • Ubisoft states annual Assassin’s Creed releases funded AC3
  • Vivendi may sell Activision-Blizzard

There’s also some Reader Feedback, as well as the new Question of the Week, “What did you take away from E3?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 266: Get That E3 Kick”

  1. Seeing as I posted my comment late on the previous podcast, and the topic was E3, I’ll just copy and paste it.

    Plenty of games have been added to my list of games I want to play, among them are:
    -Need for Speed Most Wanted
    -Epic Mickey 2
    -New Super Mario Bros. U
    -Pikmin 3
    -Rayman Legends
    -Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
    -Tomb Raider
    -Watch Dogs

    Worst E3 conference was Microsoft, best was Ubisoft. What I don’t get is how many people are “disappointed” by Nintendo’s conference, expecting huge releases such as Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero or even Smash Bros. I think that many people do not understand how long it takes to make the great games Nintendo makes, and expect them to churn them out like Call of Duty. I also think that it’s a smart move by Nintendo, releasing quite a few good titles at launch, and then pace the awesome games one by one for the future. Maybe this way the WiiU won’t run out of first-party games as soon as the Wii did.

    2 questions, both for Paul:
    So, did you shit your pants when Nintendo announced the WiiU will come out Holiday 2012?
    Have you finished Skyward Sword yet?

  2. Jonah, good call on the next level of consoles by the games displayed.

    @THQ closes their San Diego Studio, sells the UFC license
    It’s cold, hard, business. Sorry for the devs though. 2 mil. sales at a medium price of 20 USD that would give us aprox. 40 mil. USD.

    @annual Assassin’s Creed releases funded AC3:
    This means that the games are quite good, if they manage to provide a good revenue stream. Kudos to the developers then.

    @Vivendi may sell Activision-Blizzard:
    Talking about short term thinking … they’re going to sell the powerhouse that got them a truckload of money, without taking into account the possibility that they might build another great game.

    Mission Impossible for NES is based on the TV series.

    Jordan, you don’t play PC games :O ?!

  3. Had to be the most boring E3 I’ve seen. I only managed to stomach 3 conferences: Microsoft, EA and Nintendo. And I want my 3 hours 43 minutes 57 seconds back.

    @Microsoft: I was very surprised when the conference ended after Black Ops. Iwas expecting at least another 30 minutes when Microsoft usually brings out some exciting stuff. But it never happened. A very anti-climatic finish when compared to previous Microsoft conferences.

    @EA
    OMFG!!! They made sport more realistic than it is in real life. The only way to top that is to stick a joypad up David Beckham’s arse. Why go outside and play ball with friends when you can wall yourself from society and game yourself into a blind comatose stupour.

    @Nintendo
    No launch date. No launch price. No launch line up. No information on the Wii U. Will it have proper on-line capabilities? What will be Wii U policy on DLC, DRM, Region Lock, Backwards Compatability, Friend Codes etc… But Oh My Gard it will have Pikmin. And what happened to the 3DS? Why did I even buy this brick? To play Mario game remakes? There is only so many times I can stomp a goomba. I recently purchased Mario Kart 7 and it feels like an expansion pack to the 2006 DS version. In 3D. Was it made by George Lucas? For one, I am looking forward to the arrval of Assasin’s Creed and Mass Effect on the Wii U. I am sick and tired of saving princesses.

    @DynamicJul
    Recently we have seen critics bashing Nintendo’s golden IP. If I was to tell you 2 years ago that a Zelda game will recieve on average 7 out of 10 from most critics, you would call me insane. But such is the truth. It appears to be that Nintendo’s golden formulas have been over-abused. Pokemon. Zelda. Mario. Each iteration closely builds on the previous one. I stopped playing Pokemon because I am bored of following the same story doing the same things but with 150 new ugly Pokemon. Same can be applied to Zelda. On this E3 people wanted to see something new. They wanted to see how the Wii U will transform classic IPs into modern HD versions. Remember, Nintendo’s own developing studio has next to none experience with HD high performace games. People wanted to see at least a glimpse of what is to come.

    Overall, dull E3. I was expecting something more. I just hope more info will be available about the Wii U. It’s my last attempt to go Nintendo. If Wii U fails, I will turncoat to Microsoft for the following eternity. Sick and tired of bricks…

    PS: I hope in the next episode you will cover Warren Specter’s comment on ultraviolent games. So that I will get an opportunity to tear that prick apart and re-assemble him the way he shoul be.

  4. @Arthur V

    Woah, woah, woah… what are you talking about?

    The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Metacritic score of 93. Where the hell did you get an average of 7 out of 10?

    Pokemon Black and White has a metacritic rating of 87.

    Mario Kart 7: metacritic score of 85.

    Super Mario 3D Land: metacritic score of 90.

    As far as critics go, they still all agree that Nintendo makes stellar games with their IPs

    By the way, it’s my birthday today.

  5. Happy Birthday DynamicJul. And I got those scores from Gamespot. I have been using Gamespot since 2006 or so. They are sometimes unnecessarily harsh on games but I can see the point they are making regarding Nintendo games. Regardless, I still firmly stand by my point that Nintendo’s press conference was a drag. It could have been way better.

  6. Hate to break this to you, Dynamic, but that game only sold because it had the Zelda title, and Nintendo’s Iwata just made a statement that everyone hated the Wiimote, citing the fact that only 40% of people who owned Zelda actually finished the game thanks to the bad controls.

    And that’s coming from Nintendo.

  7. Sorry to post another comment, this will be the last one, but I had to get this out.

    First of all, isn’t it kind of the point that it’s a Zelda game? Nintendo has always been about their famous IPs, and that’s why they are constantly being made.

    About Iwata saying everyone hated the Wiimote, I’m sure that it is taken way out of context, please provide me a link because I want to read its source. I haven’t heard a lot about people hating the Wiimote, I’m pretty sure there are plenty of people like me who enjoyed playing the game with the MotionPlus.

    And lastly, if 40% of people who owned it actually finished it, that is quite good, because nowadays single-player games are rarely finished. It has been found that only 10% of Red Dead Redemption owners played the last mission (http://bit.ly/qXeB45). In a recent survey, taken by IGN users (majority obviously active gamers), only 51% of them always finish single-player games (http://go.ign.com/MdYUey). So yeah, 40% is not a bad number, at all.

  8. hi guize!!!
    no time so…
    @QOTW
    Watch Dogs
    Need MW
    and the sad news that next gen consoles will make my PC “useless”… again…
    must acquire currency and purchase new PC T-T

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Gaming Podcast: Monster MashGaming Podcast: Monster Mash

podcast-200x200This week we’re on vacation but Don is not, so he took the time to build out a cool mashup of some of the podcasts most memorable “moments.” Of course, most of them are the strangest bloopers and oddities that we had a couple lol’s re-listening to them. Consider this the greatest moments in the last sixty episodes wrapped up in a 4-minute time period. Holy crap.

Episode 443: Nintendo Pulls a SwitchEpisode 443: Nintendo Pulls a Switch

So, this episode covers that fact that Nintendo is about to announce their next device, which they did earlier today: the Nintendo NX is now called the Nintendo Switch. The official Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer was also unveiled today too, and the multiplayer aspect is discussed. Jonah advises TJ and Scott to try The Stanley Parable as well.

This week’s news includes:

  • Dishonored dev’s The Crossing, put on hold in 2009, gets a new trademark filing
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 announced for Xbox One and PS4, but not PC
  • Voice actors threaten strike against EA, Activision, and nine other companies
  • Grand Theft Auto 5‘s exploding Note 7 mod video yanked from YouTube by Samsung

All this and two Questions of the Week!

Guitar Hero: On Tour – 300K Units SoldGuitar Hero: On Tour – 300K Units Sold

The little DS title Guitar Hero: On Tour arrived with a hand-held attachment for playing guitar on the go. Some reviewers found it cramped, annoying and too damn small to really feel any comfort. Other reviews found it exciting, fresh and a break from standard DS games.

Reviews aside, 300,000 people are willing to bet money that the DS title was going to rock the house. The concept hit the mark for the DS because the game system is for on the go “touch and feel” style games; Guitar Hero: On Tour is definitely a touch and feel game.

Although we’ve not played it, we’re not too surprised that 300k people purchased the title, considering the install base for the Nintendo DS device itself. With such a large install base, even if only 25% of the target audience buys into the product they’ll be rolling in the dough.

Will this inspire a Rock Band style ‘drum game’ for the future from the Activision competitors or was this nothing but a fluke?

(Thanks, GameSpot)