Jonah is in LA, TJ is at EVO, and who knows where Scott is.
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Episode 506: E3 Swag and Sony SagEpisode 506: E3 Swag and Sony Sag
This episode follows the three hour long E3 episode, but there was so much E3 to talk about, a lot of the show spilled over into this show, including the crew talking about the swag Jonah sent to them, and Sony’s “winning” of E3 in terms of media attention. There was going to be a Gaming History, but the episode ran long and they weren’t going to have a two hour podcast after a three hour one.
The news of the week includes:
- Microsoft and Nintendo troll Sony over crossplay
- Bethesda lawsuit says Westworld game stole Fallout Shelter code
- Microsoft and Razer are working on Xbox keyboard and mouse support
- Nintendo Switch could get its own new Monster Hunter games
- Life is Strange 2 Episode One release date revealed
There was some Listener Feedback to last week’s episode, too.
Diablo 3: How Many Headlines Can It Catch?Diablo 3: How Many Headlines Can It Catch?
Imagine we told you the story of a game where you hack things up over and over and over and over by clicking the mouse to gain items. These items allow you to go into harder areas of a dungeon and hack things up over and over again. Would you buy into it? Probably not.
Yet Diablo, since its inception, has fascinated gamers with the fundamental goals of hacking and slashing your way to a hellish beast in hopes to hack and slash him as well. It does, however, have a firm storyline which has gotten better with age and usually marvels gamers with graphic advancements set to blow the mind.
Diablo II had some nice graphics, but they were not mind blowing and earth shattering but the game continued to be fun to play. So fun, some gamers continue to play Diablo II even today, grinding out armor and weapons. What’s the fascination?
Blizzard Entertainment seems to be born on the wind of success, each title pulling more gaming headlines than the last. Diablo III has taken over gaming RSS feeds, headline news and has presented itself on social media sites like it was the second coming (perhaps, just the opposite?)
Diablo 3, graphically, and functionally, seems to highly exceed the levels it set with the last two titles. Destructible environments being one of the best additions to the franchise, along with new classes, weapons and enemies.
The core of the game, based on the gameplay footage, is fundamentally the same: beat baddies in excess and capture cool items. Blizzard has mastered the “grind” for items and the repeated quest plots in all of its title, especially World of Warcraft, but they’ve done it in an addicting manner. We know its repeatative yet we desire to continue to play. Work of genius.
How much Diablo 3 can a single person play before growing bored? For most, boredom is quite the opposite of the hack and slash experience, choosing to sit down with their Fritos and Soda and waste away the days.
E3 Brings Back The Booth Babes, oh, and DevelopersE3 Brings Back The Booth Babes, oh, and Developers
As not to be shown up by other conferences, E3 is bringing back the booth babes, the glitz, the glamor and the publishers and developers. All but NCSoft is reported to be making it to E3 this year and they’re opening up registration again, without having an invite only exclusive club.
Is it really that easy to breath life back into E3? It makes me question why they changed it to begin with as developers and publlishers were the ones reported to not want to spend the millions of dollars in cost to obtain a few extra eyeballs on their products. We all contemplated mini-conferences with each major developer to take the place of the big E3 where each confierence would focus on just a few small brands.
Now, we’re heading back to the way it always was… isn’t this what the big boys were trying to avoid? Apparently not, because they’re all signed up and ready to return and hype their product. Perhaps these same developers saw some falling trends and realized E3 is needed to push their new games?
Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft and all their friends are back again to battle, this is like a long awaited Street Fighter sequel. The new Super Smash Bros Brawl of press events with the hot chicks in tow hoping to flash the lights upon their awesome next greatest game development.
Will this really reinvigorate the conference? Will it cause other conferences like TGS and GDC to lose attendance this year? We know many mainstream press folks are sighing as they realize they’re going to all have to show up and really work the show, for them this is business and ratings. While a few of us are impressed by the anime clad chicks, most of the folks there are actually working for a living.