Why should a wide audience care for a game construction kit?
Who 'won' E4 2014? *spawn
- Thread starter RancidLunchmeat
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Why should a wide audience care for a game construction kit?
Are you talking about LittleBigPlanet here ?
I went through the E3 conference, and I think it was the better conference with more cool games, more of which seemed exclusive. I think Microsoft deserves the win on this one. The games that wowed me the most were probably here as well, AC:Unity and The Witcher looked really impressive. I actually liked the look of Fable Legends too, and Overdrive (though omg zombies, even the comic angle on them is getting stale by this point, but it looks like a great mix of platforming and 3D shooter, perhaps a proper evolution of the R&C shtick for the first time in a long while). It was a decent recovery from last year for sure.
For Sony's conference, they had some good stuff, for sure, but also a lot of faff. They went to the smaller stuff way to soon. And for the non-game bits, if they had spent a lot more time on show and not tell, they'd have been much better off. Show PS Now, and show it running on Vita, for instance. Show the Vita TV in action. Remind people of some of the great features of Vita and games that it has, and make it compete with other mobile devices marketing wise, not with other. Yes, I'm (very) happy with YouTube support as I kind of hate Facebook for sharing video, but you should have reminded people that you can now also put stuff on USB, and I would have liked support for dropbox as well. And again, if you didn't have anything to show yet, then the little time spent on it would have been better served by giving a reminder demo of the whole experience.
And those figures - they mean little to anyone. The best showing for them has been in LBP. They should have made that a tradition, and maybe set out a challenge to the community to make the most amusing presentation, but even reusing the old presentation would have been better than just showing the figures. Heck, they could have Project Morpheus is a huge deal, I think, but be more concrete and let Richard Marx or Anton tell something about it, give a reel with excited developers and beta testers, or leave it out.
Sony saved public appearance by having a strong finish, and that skews perception.
As for who comes out of E3 looking better overall, I think it's more difficult. A lot of the better looking games are multi-platform, and Microsoft isn't doing a good enough job in telling me why I need to play those titles on their platform. Current public perception still favors Playstation 4, in terms of exclusives, in terms of what's the better platform for multi-platform games, and even OS and services wise the PS4 is in a good place at the moment, even though MS should be winning that one hands down.
If MS can't win the US, they can forget about Europe and Japan, and that will leave them in a very, very weak position. So there's a lot of work to do.
As for Nintendo, they've chosen not to play
. They've brought nothing interesting new. Zelda looks good, but I've yet to play my first one.
Anyway, that's my first response. A final verdict at the end of the week, when we've seen most games being played and demoed. But in general I thought the MS conference was stronger than Sony's.
For Sony's conference, they had some good stuff, for sure, but also a lot of faff. They went to the smaller stuff way to soon. And for the non-game bits, if they had spent a lot more time on show and not tell, they'd have been much better off. Show PS Now, and show it running on Vita, for instance. Show the Vita TV in action. Remind people of some of the great features of Vita and games that it has, and make it compete with other mobile devices marketing wise, not with other. Yes, I'm (very) happy with YouTube support as I kind of hate Facebook for sharing video, but you should have reminded people that you can now also put stuff on USB, and I would have liked support for dropbox as well. And again, if you didn't have anything to show yet, then the little time spent on it would have been better served by giving a reminder demo of the whole experience.
And those figures - they mean little to anyone. The best showing for them has been in LBP. They should have made that a tradition, and maybe set out a challenge to the community to make the most amusing presentation, but even reusing the old presentation would have been better than just showing the figures. Heck, they could have Project Morpheus is a huge deal, I think, but be more concrete and let Richard Marx or Anton tell something about it, give a reel with excited developers and beta testers, or leave it out.
Sony saved public appearance by having a strong finish, and that skews perception.
As for who comes out of E3 looking better overall, I think it's more difficult. A lot of the better looking games are multi-platform, and Microsoft isn't doing a good enough job in telling me why I need to play those titles on their platform. Current public perception still favors Playstation 4, in terms of exclusives, in terms of what's the better platform for multi-platform games, and even OS and services wise the PS4 is in a good place at the moment, even though MS should be winning that one hands down.
If MS can't win the US, they can forget about Europe and Japan, and that will leave them in a very, very weak position. So there's a lot of work to do.
As for Nintendo, they've chosen not to play
. They've brought nothing interesting new. Zelda looks good, but I've yet to play my first one. Anyway, that's my first response. A final verdict at the end of the week, when we've seen most games being played and demoed. But in general I thought the MS conference was stronger than Sony's.
The same goes for both. Although LPB did have lots of ready platforming stages to play with.
Not sure about Project Spark.
But really, although both of these games are interesting they lack the mass appeal because it requires effort to enjoy to the fullest
The LBP 3 reveal was weak though. It looked like a PS3 game and they didnt show anything more exciting than what we were used to with the series already.
LBP3 is actually cross-gen, from what I understand. It is coming out for both PS3 and PS4. I think the biggest thing about the game is just the new characters and what possibilities their powers enable for level creators.
I'm not sure I understand how Project Spark will be released. LBP3 is a packaged product with a single player campaign of pre-made levels plus the create mode and user-made levels. Not sure what Project Spark is going to look like for your average user. Do you buy it on disc? Is it F2P? How is it monetized? If there is an included campaign, is it any fun?
I'm not sure I understand how Project Spark will be released. LBP3 is a packaged product with a single player campaign of pre-made levels plus the create mode and user-made levels. Not sure what Project Spark is going to look like for your average user. Do you buy it on disc? Is it F2P? How is it monetized? If there is an included campaign, is it any fun?
Sigfried1977
Legend
Nintendo's Robot Chicken-like skit was just about the only thing this year I wouldln't have gladly slept through.
The monetization of Project Spark is currently the biggest worry, as I've heard various complaints about this from beta users.
It would be good if they went for a Conker campaign instead. Currently the whole thing is still a big question mark to me. LBP at least have always been very entertaining (at least I thought so) platformers (first ones mostly in co-op in particular, but the later ones including on Vita have just been pretty good).
And yeah, those new sacks, they seem very unassuming, but they are very clearly intended to facilitate certain types of gameplay and have a lot of potential in that area.
For LBP3, I don't know that it's a PS3 release as well? It's been rumored to be in development for PS3, but I haven't seen any official confirmation (but haven't paid attention that well). But very clearly they've stated that it is backwards compatible with all the previous games' online levels, that's for sure.
All we know about the PS4 version is that it's Full HD and full support for the DS4 controller. Not much beyond that I think.
I'm certainly very happy with this release, though I do really hope for a proper sequel that really leverages the CUs for better phyiscs, that also allow for a more tight platforming experience. Will probably never happen, but I'd love it regardless.
loekf
Regular
Well, if people complain about "suits". I got really annoyed with all those Microsoft guys wearing biker boots, torn jeans and and old smelly untucked t-shirts .. incl. Mr. Spencer himself
LBP was packaged as a game and provides a stand-alone game experience. AFAIK Spark doesn't have a campaign as such, and is a much more pure game creator, like Kodu on 360. As such, there's no immediate hook for Spark for people wanting to play games. It's more a distribution platform for indie titles created within Spark, so you'd have to educate consumers with no interest in making stuff to get Spark to play content available on it.
Or rather, where most games like LBP or Trials provide a game with flexible level design tools, Spark is a level design tool without a game. The moment Spark gets a campaign that you play through and which gamers would be willing to play without any interest in creating levels, then it'd move into LBP/Trials territory.
Sigfried1977
Legend
On one hand I think it's laudable that LBP3 offers legacy support. On the other hand it probably means it's gonna play just like the crappy platformer it's always been too. Maybe 60 fps could tighten it up a little. Certainly looks unassuming enough to hit that framerate. Then again, Puppeteer ran at mere 30fps too and controlled relatively well regardless.
Prophecy2k
Veteran
Ubisoft won E3 2014 in terms of the conferences.
MS, Sony and EA's were all pretty okay to me. But not enough of the new or exciting. Ubi's wasn't too much different but at least Aisha Tyler was entertaining (plus that lady gets more fiiiiine each year). Also Yves Gullemont is adorable.. like a little silver-haired french teddy bear.
This fall is all about the multiplatform games, and they all had a very strong showing. So great for Sony and the PS4, given their is the default platform for those games. MS did well however with the value proposition on the Halo collection, and their list of fall exclusives are objectively stronger than Sony's this year (whereas I would have argued that last year).
Haven't been keeping up with the Nintendo anouncements as their platform is pretty irrelevant to me personally (not that I think they make bad games, just that I don't care about the WiiU).
MS, Sony and EA's were all pretty okay to me. But not enough of the new or exciting. Ubi's wasn't too much different but at least Aisha Tyler was entertaining (plus that lady gets more fiiiiine each year). Also Yves Gullemont is adorable.. like a little silver-haired french teddy bear.
This fall is all about the multiplatform games, and they all had a very strong showing. So great for Sony and the PS4, given their is the default platform for those games. MS did well however with the value proposition on the Halo collection, and their list of fall exclusives are objectively stronger than Sony's this year (whereas I would have argued that last year).
Haven't been keeping up with the Nintendo anouncements as their platform is pretty irrelevant to me personally (not that I think they make bad games, just that I don't care about the WiiU).
Prophecy2k
Veteran
LBP2 was a very good platformer. Played it and finished it. Had more fun with it than Puppeteer, which I lost interest in.
Curious, did you try LBP2? As if you only played the first I would recommend 2 as it was much better.
As fan service I think Nintendo won. I think Nintendo fans not only let out a breath of relief but may have been inspired more by what they saw. Of course you are talking about a pre-staged event so in many ways you can't compare it to Sony and MS.
MS did a great job but not because it was all "games games games" that was a low bar, it didn't have the highs and lows of the Sony event and if I were sitting in the audience I would have most likely had a better time.
The Sony event had the biggest reveals and made me smile more that the MS one. Some of that was maybe not in MS's hands because of some leaks so that muddies it a bit. I actually enjoyed the LPB3 reveal because it wasn't expected, it was real gameplay mistakes and all. Grim Fandango and the BloodBorne reveals were great in my opinion as well. I am far more interested in Powers than Halo in terms of the TV aspect so I wasn't as annoyed with the amount of time, but the guy in charge of the project was on way too long as was the new CEO but then again is a Sony conference. The TV and entertainment stuff during the conference was fine just way too long and shows just how much Sony is going to rely on the PS4 to help start their own "channel" of original content. In terms of presentation it wasn't as much fun but in terms of giving a sense of a new, vigorous direction for a newly restructured Sony it was actually a little bit profound.
I'll give Sony an edge as long as I had an empty bladder if I was on the floor
MS did a great job but not because it was all "games games games" that was a low bar, it didn't have the highs and lows of the Sony event and if I were sitting in the audience I would have most likely had a better time.
The Sony event had the biggest reveals and made me smile more that the MS one. Some of that was maybe not in MS's hands because of some leaks so that muddies it a bit. I actually enjoyed the LPB3 reveal because it wasn't expected, it was real gameplay mistakes and all. Grim Fandango and the BloodBorne reveals were great in my opinion as well. I am far more interested in Powers than Halo in terms of the TV aspect so I wasn't as annoyed with the amount of time, but the guy in charge of the project was on way too long as was the new CEO but then again is a Sony conference. The TV and entertainment stuff during the conference was fine just way too long and shows just how much Sony is going to rely on the PS4 to help start their own "channel" of original content. In terms of presentation it wasn't as much fun but in terms of giving a sense of a new, vigorous direction for a newly restructured Sony it was actually a little bit profound.
I'll give Sony an edge as long as I had an empty bladder if I was on the floor
If they leverage the touchpad in building things in LPB3 that could be really cool. I believe there was some DLC for 2 that used the Vita but LBP2 wasn't built with it in mind as far as I know, now maybe there will be even better support and another reason to get a vita.
Sigfried1977
Legend
I have all the LBPs. I actually thought the Vita game had the best "campaign". I agree with you on Puppeteer. Unforunately that game was just as dull as it was gorgeous. It had much snappier controls than the LBP games, though. I wouldn't call any of these games good jump and runs though. Their charm carries them a long way and the level designs are often surprisingly clever, but that's kinda it. As a jump and run fan I just don't think those games really cut it when pitted against the Raymans and Marios of this world. In the end LBP is a charming tool for creating unfortunately crappy games.
Funniest bit was the title reveal of the DR3 DLC it was quite well done.
Some form of honors should be given to EA for driving a battleship into the golf course for their new golfing game.
Some form of honors should be given to EA for driving a battleship into the golf course for their new golfing game.
This was the E3 for Microsoft to lose and they didn't, so in that light i would say they won, they made the right moves up to E3 to clear the way and make way for games games games games..
Sony on the other hand stood to win this E3, mostly because Microsoft could actually lose it again. I would say they didn't win thanks to Microsoft doing a good job, they kept it pretty tight, and they really had some excellent games to show the world.
And imho they had the best big titles (yes Halo is very big, but it's a re-run of 5 game series.. which really has been around the block) and again, in typically Sony fashion they showcased plenty of "weird" none AAA OMG BLOCKBUSTER LETS BUY THE HYPED GAME. Sony is simply more about games.
But that being said, i have a feeling Sony did sandbag a bit, they have more but i think they are saving stuff for when they need to push the momentum
Sony on the other hand stood to win this E3, mostly because Microsoft could actually lose it again. I would say they didn't win thanks to Microsoft doing a good job, they kept it pretty tight, and they really had some excellent games to show the world.
And imho they had the best big titles (yes Halo is very big, but it's a re-run of 5 game series.. which really has been around the block) and again, in typically Sony fashion they showcased plenty of "weird" none AAA OMG BLOCKBUSTER LETS BUY THE HYPED GAME. Sony is simply more about games.
But that being said, i have a feeling Sony did sandbag a bit, they have more but i think they are saving stuff for when they need to push the momentum
The last two Rayman's are awesome platformers. The best fun in LBP is the physics and the co-op stuff, but there are some really awesome platforming things in LBP anyway. I wouldn't want to hurt the physics too much, but an option to use everything in there and still also be able to modify sackboy behavior so that he reacts like a Rayman style platformer would still be cool.
It would definitely also be interesting to see what LBP would feel like at 60fps, with everything else unchanged.
Sigfried1977
Legend
The big winner of this E3 was the year 2015.
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