E3 Predictions (Gaming post)

Apparently you're supposed to have your car checked out when the check engine light goes on. Who knew?

Well, I was hoping to get to this last week but here is my E3 predictions. Frankly, nothing in it is exactly crazy as I don't think there will be many "bombs" dropped. This doesn't include price drops though. With the current deals on XBO has a gift card included, I think it's safe to say that it's going to get a drop either at E3 or in August at Gamescom. As for the PS4, Sony increased the YOY number but dropped the financial forecast which typically signals that it will be getting either a price drop or they're going to do a massive pack in for the holidays. I'd lean more towards a price drop as it's a better sales point. What prices these drops will be? Who knows but I'd expect a $50 drop on them.

Battletoads - We know it's coming, it's been obvious since they appeared in Kinect Sports Rivals last year. That being said, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Rare isn't working on it but rather Press Play have been working on it after the release of Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. No real reason why to think of them working on it, just a gut feeling. Of course I say this but watch it end up being something like WayForward

Rare - While Press Play is working on that, Rare announces two games. We know they're working on a game that is in Rare's wheelhouse and a new Banjo game for the XBO & PC would fit that. People have been saying they've been wanting a new Banjo game so they get to put their money where their mouths is. Personally I think a new character platform is throwing away money these days but eh, it would fit a hole in the XBO's library. Second game is a new Viva Pinata that is primarily for mobile but it's also the first game to be used as an example of Visual Studio's cross language compiler so it will also hit PC/XBO. Perfect game to cross over into mobile (which is a bigger market than console) and it would work as a small app to be quickly checked in on W10. Not a huge game but a nice little F2P mobile game that will have the series finally find an audience.

Rise of Nations - Microsoft have been staffing up for about 2 years now for some kind of RTS. Considering they're still releasing expansion packs to AoE II HD, I wouldn't expect a new game from that series and unless it's a new Halo Wars, Rise of Nations is the only other real franchise to relaunch. And they didn't buy the IP a few years ago to sit on it.

Halo - Come out to do some groveling about the release of MCC and then finally get a good look at the campaign of Halo 5. Also get a trailer and a premiere date for the upcoming Halo tv show. Don't expect a whole lot of unexpected out of the Halo stuff.

Gears of War - We know they're doing some kind of remaster of at least the original game. Should be time to give at least some kind of dramatic story trailer.

Forza 6 - Eh, standard Forza reveal though this time with time cycles and weather (weather was one of the best parts of Horizon 2).

Scalebound - Give us a story trailer with a little bit of action with the promise of GamesCon being where to get a good look at it. I'm expecting this game to be out early next year as Platinum is one of the fastest devs around (need to be otherwise they would be broke a long time ago).

ID@Xbox - Standard indie reel where outside of one or two games, it's waste of time.

Hololens - We know it's going to be there but we don't know what kind of showing. I wouldn't expect much outside of some Minecraft stuff and some simple games. Expect it to disappoint people, especially with the FOV.

Alan Wake Remaster - As for making up in bumping Quantum Break for like the fifth time (was supposed to be released in launch frame), they will announce a "remaster" edition of Alan Wake. They has a questionnaire asking if people would want a remaster of Alan Wake as a pre-order bonus for QB and I'm thinking they'll release it as a make up dealio.

Rise of the Tomb Raider - Comes out this year, show it off at E3. Maybe they will finally show off some actual tomb raiding this time.

Morpheus - Comes out early next year (thinking March) as Sony and Occlus waits for Samsung to finally have their LCD screens be up to snuff with a price point of $300. Also expecting a blow out on simple games where they can hide the fact that PS4 is nowhere close enough to be powerful for the VR that people are expecting. Will disappoint.

Ratchet & Clank - They have the movie coming out this year and Insominac are rebooting the series. Fully expect the movie to bomb but as for the game, do people really want another, reboot or not? The series is in the dumps when it comes to sales.

Gravity Rush 2 - In shocking news, the Vita is a dead platform which leads to the reason why this game was shifted from the handheld to the PS4. I personally can't wait as I really loved the first game. Also would expect them to release an up port of the first game to the PS4 to get people aquainted with the series.

The Tomorrow Children - After the beta, this game went dark on news. Fully expecting this to be one of their "big" holiday releases.

No Man's Sky - It's probably their biggest "exclusive" for the PS4 for the holidays. Maybe they will actually say what the game is actually about rather than platitudes and vagaries. Also expecting them to announce and show off the game running on the Morpheus.

Destiny expansion pack - Wouldn't be E3 without a segment about Destiny. The expansion pack is put up or shut up for Bungie on if this IP will actually have legs to carry them along their 10 year plan. With the sharp criticism, I'm actually kinda expecting them to actually give this game some semblance of a story. And they will finally add some social hooks to the game. Maybe we will finally get Activision to spill on an actual number of sales instead of the current 20m accounts (which tells you nothing).

Star Wars Battlefield - Fully expecting Sony and EA to announce an exclusive partnership dealing with the PS4 being the first place to get DLC for Battlefield as Sony really needs something along these lines. Fully it to follow the lines of the when they showed it off last month where it will wow people until they look closer at the game and then pick out that the AA isn't so hot and it's not a big upgade over Battlefield 4.

EA Access - Sony grovels that they have heard fans saying they wanted it on the PS4 (it's been making decent $ on XBO while PSNow has failed so far) so they're going to let EA bring it to the console.

Uncharted 4 - It's supposed to come out spring of next year but I'm kinda expecting this to get bumped back to the holidays. A story trailer should be expected. Considering Druckman and Stanley wanted to kill off some main characters in Uncharted 3 before Hennig gave them the finger, I'm curious if they will allude to killing off Elena and Chloe in UC4.

Amiibo - Amiibos, Amiibos everywhere. Though they said they're happy with the numbers, it hasn't been exactly the breakout hit (10m figures isn't that hot) people expected. With a new console/handheld coming out next year-ish, I wouldn't be surprised if they announced a game that actually uses the figures in a meaningful way instead of being more or less, DLC for some games. As for what kind of game, who knows.

StarFox - Well, outside of a random mainline Mario game being announced and released in 6 months, Star Fox is what they have for their holiday releases for the Wii U.

Mario Maker - This level editor platform thing is out in September, expect them to walk through in how you actually go about in making Super Mario Bros levels. I think the big kicker is that this is also going to be Nintendo's first mobile release. The whole thing is built for a tablet which while also gives you a taste of classic Super Mario, it wouldn't cannibalize any sort of sales.

Fire Emblem If - New story trailer, Nintendo completes their transition in accepting waifus.

QoL - They show it off at E3 since they don't really have anywhere else to unveil it. It ends up being something stupid, a $20 pedometer that works with Pokemon and the upcoming Zelda Wii U game.

Retro Studios - In non-surprising news, Retro goes back to the Metroid well. It's a natural progression of the Gamecube games but the trailer doesn't say a platform......dun dun dun.

Nintendo Fusion - They don't show hardware but it's a rundown of what the concept of the combined handheld/console is. Nothing real specific outside of the release date is 2016 holidays and they announce a few games.

Zelda - The upcoming Zelda game is pulling a Twilight Princess by coming out for Wii U and the new device. They compare the two and it has a nice bump in graphics and then say that it's running on a handheld.

Unified Account System - First thing to come out of the partnership with DeNA is a unified account system with DeNA running the show on it. It's what you expect and nothing fancy. Finally doing it when they should have 15 years ago is the reward itself.

Twitter

posted by Gang of Gaming Morons! at 03:15 PM

| Access Comments