Randomly Mine: June 19th, 2019

An Ending

The general sentiment I’ve been getting from E3 this year is while there were great games revealed, announcements made, and good people, something seemed off. It’s something even I, someone who isn’t as invested in the show couldn’t help but feel. It puzzled me as I was generally pleased with the games, and didn’t mind how many revealed to release next-year as most E3 release dates aren’t met anyways. But a friend finally put it into words.

This show felt like the pre-roll to next year, and that’s because it is.

Sony & Microsoft have new consoles in store and they’ve confirmed to have more information in the future, which raises the question of why would companies show highly innovative games for a system that’s scheduled to be replaced upon this new decade? 

Well they wouldn’t, and they didn’t.

I’m always playing catch up on games, which is probably why this answer didn’t hit me, because it’s one I’m unaffected by. For people who love the couch, controllers, and chillaxing rather than reinstalling windows after a bricking like me, they’ve got some solid looking titles on the horizon, but nothing to push boundaries except for perhaps Cyberpunk 2077, which even then has skepticism with the reveal that Reeves was only brought in the last year and rumblings of an Anthem like development cycle.

Whether that’s true or not will be confirmed with time, but it does explain why this year’s E3, despite all the polish, pizzazz, and product, seemed to be missing something.

Box Art

There’s things that are instrumental to a game’s success depending on its goals. Art-style, gameplay, story, etc. However, there's other things which aren’t unimportant, but low-priority. Transitions, HUD effects, and box art…

People don’t really take these things seriously as a result.

But, they’re fun to take seriously. So I’ll list highlights of in a two-hour conversation I had recently about box-art. Firstly, Mass Effect got royally screwed.

Bioware’s debut project was a great start. This cover’s got everything, Humans, Aliens, Protagonist, Antagonist, Geth, and the Normandy. It gives the impression that you, the person holding this hypothetical box are just scratching the surface of what’s to see. Shepard’s expressionless face isn’t great, but hey, first-attempt at non-avatar protagonist and all.

And Mass Effect 2…

Nothing.

Okay, slight-exaggeration. You’ve got Yvonne Strahovski on the front-cover – got to use some of your star power – a new alien, and a ruined planet. To this day I don’t get it. The desolate planet in the background I would presume to be Tuchanka which the game does have two Loyalty missions on, but I fail to see how that ties into the main-plot, intrigue, or indeed its tagline.

“They don’t expect you to survive.”

Perhaps the tagline served as a warning of what’s to come…

Shepard’s armor is cool as is the Carnifex pistol and Omni-blade. Is it really cool enough to leave as the only subject aside from Earth being bombarded by Reapers? No squads, ships, or species? Just Shepard looking like someone in the room made a really bad pun?

What I think we’ve witnessed here is the beginning of a new-generation, evolving what worked in the past until caving to corporate command and charts. Which led to the massively derived “man with gun.”

Which leads us to Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2, at a glance it appears to be more of the same. However, not only is it echoing Redemption, it even features the same gang of horses on the cover, confirming to players the game is going to relate to the original’s story. I can’t really see what else Rockstar should’ve done. Man with gun in this case thematically connects with what it’s following up.

Plus, at least we’ve moved on from the 80’s. Contra is an absolute classic, one of the greats, but it’s cover is… not just inspired by American movie-posters.

And it wasn’t the only one. The most notable example thanks to AVGN is the original Metal Gear which is undeniably… 

Kyle Reese from the Terminator. Perhaps they should’ve gotten Michael Beign to play Snake in MGS5 rather than Keifer Sutherland, just to bring it all full-circle.

Honestly, this topic despite its low-priority is so dense with detail, influences, and implications I won’t be surprised if I expand on this in a future video.

In the meantime…

 https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1141386232347410432 

I’m just going to laugh at EA’s pathetic attempt to outdo Rockstar’s soft-language conversation of microtransactions “recurrent consumer spending opportunities, calling Lootboxes “surprise mechanics.”

With people like these running things, we really do have the industry we deserve.