Xbox One 180°s on DRM

Yes, I know the pun in the title is now way over used, but how can I not take the opportunity? Today Don Mattrick, President of Interactive Entertainment Business for Microsoft posted that there will be a day one patch that will remove the requirement for the Xbox One to force a check of your internet connection so you can play your games. There will be no  problems with you wanting to trade / sell / loan a disc based game. In fact, all playing of games will work exactly as it does today; no network no problem.  As long as we're assuming you are doing single player, but that part is kind of self explanatory.

There are two downsides to this whole thing. We have now lost the ability to install games to an Xbox One and not need a disc and we lost the family share plan. Overall, I think the gamers came out ahead.

E3 2013 Pictures

Finally I have the pictures that I felt came out decent. The full gallery can be found here.

Batman: Arkham Origins

"Batman: Arkham Origins" is a prequel to the Arkham game series. It is set relatively early on in Batman's career. How early? So early he has yet to even meet all of his rouges' gallery. It is set during Christmas Eve and Black Mask has placed a bounty of $50,000,000 on Batman with the condition that the job must be done tonight. This brings all sorts of scum, such as Deathstroke and Deadshot, to Gotham in hopes of making the big payday. But why does Black Mask need Batman out if the picture so badly?

Now this Batman game is not being done by developer Rocksteady. Instead it is being done internally by Warner Brothers Montreal. This honestly had me worried as I was not sure that the new team could maintain the quality we have come to expect from an Arkham game. Well based on the demo we saw at E3, there is nothing to fear.

The locomotion through the city and combat appears to be intact. They also showed off a new detective vision by using a helicopter that crashed in front of Batman to recreate the crime scene and figure out what happened. Two new thug type enemies made their debut in the demo as well. The first being a large armored bruiser that you have to stun to take down and the second a martial artist that can counter your counters forcing you to counter the counter-counter. The demo shortly moved to a predator room where we got to see a new toy, the remote claw. With it you can pick two targets and fire, causing the claw to hit target one, then target two and then pull them together. This was used effectively to crash two thugs together, a thug and a gas barrel and finally between two gargoyles to create a tight rope. It looks like a very fun tool. Once the room was empty Batman gets in an elevator (really?) and heads to the floor Blackskull should be on. Here Batman discovers he is not as clever as he thinks when Bane welcomes an empty elevator, and then reaches through the ceiling and rips Batman down. Bane throws Bats into a room with the pinnacle of Batman villians, Joker. The demo ends with Joker blowing up a construction site and threatening the rest of Gotham. Definitely looking forward to this in October.

South Park: The Stick of Truth

What happens when you are the new kid in town? What is the the first thing you want to do? You want to become cool. This is your ultimate goal in "South Park: The Stick of Truth". The kids of South Park are invovled in a massive LARP that encompasses the whole town. You enter as the Dragonborn, a hero that is to become known by all through his magical abilities. And when I say magical I really mean the ability to fart in a cup and then direct the flammable/explosive fumes to where you want them. As the Dragonborn you also have a shout (a massive fart that can destroy some barriers) frost breath (fire extinguisher) and lightning (bucket of water and a car battery).

The demo we watched felt like what you may see in an authentic episode of South Park. You can feel the influence that Matt and Trey Parker have on the games creation. Expect it out "this holiday season, or some holiday season. You know how games are".

Mad Max

Max is back and this time you are in control of his rage. In the game Max has lost his car and in this wasteland that means death. To survive he employs Chum Bucket to build him a new vehicle; the Magnum Opis. This is appears to be a major game point. You have to scavenge the waste land to get parts in order to upgrade the car to your play style. Each piece will affect the weight and handling of the car. A heavy grill guard will cause your car to ride lower if you don't upgrade the suspension.

In the demo we watched Max out on a mission to get the Talon; a heavy duty spear that he needs to get in order to take down the Jaw, a massive gate blocking his way to Gas Junction. They showed off the vehicle combat with Max and Chum Bucket using a spear gun to spin out a car, running other cars off the road and using a shotgun to blast bandits that jumped on the car. Once they retrieved the Talon they drove to where they needed to use it, but had to stop and take out some sentries on foot. This was done with a lighting stick (tossed into a guys chest and electrocuted him) and melee combat. Then he did a silent kill on another guy before returning to the car in order to pull out a sniper rifle and take out a few fuel tanks from range taking out a significant portion of their forces.

We were not given a release date on the game on the game, but given WB's record for entertaining games lately I think this is one we can look forward to.

Assassin's Creed IV

Assassin's Creed IV features what may be considered the oddest choice for an assassin yet, Edward Kenway, a pirate and friend to Blackbeard. This brings up all sorts of questions about the true history of pirates in the AC world but we'll have to get to that another time. In the floor demo for E3 they showed two main aspects of the game, combat and stealth. The combat portion of the game started with Kenway tailing a man to to a group that wants this pirate village knocked out. He kills the enemy scouts that might find him until he reaches the camp. At the camp from an overhead vantage, he jumps down and kills two people with a hidden blade and shoots the other four. This all looked like classic AC. Even with all the spies dead it was not enough and a British (I'm assuming, so don't hold me to it!) fleet attacks the town setting it a blaze. Kenway then free runs through the burning city to get to his ship and counter attack. Despite the fleet getting the jump on Kenway, he manages to immobilize a ship, board it and take out the soldiers. This part of the demo ended with Kenway and Blackbeard prepared to take on the overwhelming odds surrounding them.

The second demo had more to do with the world exploration aspects of the game. After accepting a contract on a set of captain brothers that, well I don't know what they did, but we accepted the contract non the less. The first bother was easy enough to take out as he was hanging out in the local bar. Kenway walked up to the brother, nonchalantly grabbed the target's head and smashed it into the bar. This scared the other brother and as a result booked it to his ship. Kenway jumped on to his boat and followed the brother, disabled and boarded the ship, and finally killed the captain (your target) and most the crew. The ship was then given a pirate captain and sent to join Kenway's fleet. The demo continued with a treasure hunt that involved using stealth to go around a number of Spanish soldiers and freeing other pirates.

All in all the game looked very much like a traditional Assassin's Creed title. It would appear that not all of the architecture will be as epic as AC II, but with the local of the Caribbean we could be seeing Aztec and Myan ruins to climb. Look for it to come out for all systems late October.

Hometown Story

A new IP from Natsumi, "Hometown Story" is about a young girl that is forced to take over the family store after her Grandmother passes away. Now the store is on the verge of shutting down. What can be done to prevent this from happening? Well, that is the point of the game so we'll have to find out when we get a chance to play it. What will you do to keep the store open? I don't know the answers to these yet, but check back later when we receive more informaiton.

Randall

Randall is going to be a multi-platform game that is in the early stages or development. The game's main character is a special individual named Randall who has mental powers. These powers prevent him from being mind controlled by some nefarious force. Now, he must use his powers to free the rest of the town from the mind control and discover who did it. Expect this title to come out in 2 years.  Sounds like it could be worth the wait though.