Tag: E3

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Gran Turismo Sport has Balloons!

willow springs with balloons

The Gran Turismo franchise has always been on the cutting edge of technology and Gran Turismo Sport, the newest addition to the franchise is no different. In the past Gran Turismo was usually the centerpiece in the Playstation lineup, a product that showed the rest of the Playstation development community the possibility of eking out jaw-dropping visuals on each respective console generation.

willow springs with balloons The PR video above Polyphony Digital released for Gran Turismo Sport at this year’s E3 was more of a promotional piece for Gran Turismo as a cultural touchtone than it was a tech demo for the Playstation 4 as a piece of hardware. This could be because of the similarities in hardware between Sony and Microsoft or it could be because Polyphony Digital wants to position itself differently this generation compared to other generations.

gt sport live steam Gran Turismo Sport looks great from the videos that are out there and I don’t think there should be any question in fans minds that it will once again be a classic example of driving beauty. Since the architecture of the Playstation 4 is so similar to that of the Xbox One, I wonder if this game will be that far ahead of Forza in the looks department. I can’t do any side-by-side comparisons to gauge which game has better this or better that, all I can do is play each game and critically figure out which one aligns with my own tastes.

prospective coverLast generation, GT5 and GT6 were like two sides of a coin. GT5 was a good game but because of development issues it lagged behind in more areas than it excelled at. GT6 seemed like Polyphony’s desire to show the world that they could make a great game in under a century that was packed with a lot of the stuff that was missing from the first Playstation 3 developed GT game. GT6, in my mind, was the ultimate racing experience of last generation; it was such a tighter product than GT5 or any of the Forza games.

GT Sport looks like it will be the follow up to GT6 that Sony fans want from Polyphony. It looks like they are getting into live streaming and the development team is focusing on online features that will bring the all corners of world together to play this one game. In this way, GT Sport looks like it has a chance to be a worldwide phenomenon; the kind of phenomenon that Gran Turismo games have always strived towards. I’m looking forward to being able to play the game with my own Playstation 4 controller when it comes out November 18th 2016.

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No Stage Show for Nintendo – Something Better!

laser eye reggie

Nintendo is forgoing an expensive stage show again at this year’s E3. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have a lot planned.

Nintendo is having “Video Armageddon”

Who knows what they will call it but they are going to have a huge Super Smash Bros. tournament in the middle of E3. This is going to be amazing and you can even be a part of it.

picture from the tournament
Video Armageddon

Some of you more ‘agressive’ fans might be asking:

Are they trying to take steam away from the convention?

I don’t think so. They are just trying to do something different. They are putting themselves out there as attendees more than anything. This gesture makes them look like they are just part of the crowd of fans that are excited to be at E3 and they are trying to spread that out to other parts of the country – just like Penny Arcade did with their their shindig PAX.

Is this going to be a success?

I think there is no possible way that this could go bad for Nintendo. They are still showing off games at the convention. They are still going to put on this huge Smash Bros. tournament that is going to be packed with people from the expo, but also people from the city of Los Angeles. Don’t forget this show is at the Nokia Theatre which is just down the block from the convention. That means that you won’t even have to attend E3 or pay the high ticket prices to go to Nintendo’s event. Will they charge? I don’t know. Also, while all of these people are cramming into the Nokia Theatre to play the game, those of you who couldn’t go to LA will be able to play the game at your local Best Buy.

All of that add up to lots of news coverage. With the local tournaments at Best Buy that could also mean local coverage for them too.

This is what Nintendo should be like all the time.

I really think that this video done by Mega 64, who are fans but they also make cool videos, and this tournament are Nintendo trying to democratize video games. Nintendo has always been a personal company. They have fallen behind because they wanted to stay personal with their console strategies, but this video and tournament are ways for them to ingratiate themselves to us once again.

kid from the wizard
California

This tournament is Nintendo trying to get back to being that company that it used to be when every kid dreamed of hitching their way across America to California and showing off their skills in some of their favorite games.

And, in the end, there would always be a brand new game that would be revealed and we would once again believe that things could be good. Companies could be good.