The MBoard

2018 is looking to be an excellent year for games, but one would wonder if a rift in time & space has been broken due to the amount of nostalgic franchises we've been receiving lately (Crash Bandicoot, Spyro to be re-released, and of course, Mega Man).

E3 2018 is over a month away, and knowing the trends from past conventions, we're sure to be hearing leaks and information about games before the expo even begins.

What shall we see in the future? Perhaps even more old franchises making a comeback? Another influx of indie games? An announcement for XBox One X-S? Will we finally be blessed with the highly-anticipated Mario is Missing sequel?

Here's a list is games (http://www.ign.com/wikis/e3/Games%20at%20E3%202018) most likely, if not definitely to be shown this year, so far....

Super Smash Bros. may steal the show if they offer enough details about this installment. What will change? What characters will return to the roster? Which new ones will be introduced? Most importantly, will we see our favorite Blue Bomber return for the Switch?

2K has been secretly working on a AAA title, and they're pretty tight-lipped about it. Most guesses point to a new Borderlands installment, while rumors have been circulating about a new BioShock installment in the making. If both are true, chances are the former is likely to be announced than the latter at this year's Electronic Entertainment Eulogy.

Games I would like to see this year:

- Metro Exodus (already announced)
- Borderlands 3
- New BioShock
- Accounting Simulator 2018
- TheRedPriest VR
- Beyonce Two Souls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9pcazDqtsg) GOTY Edition
- The Bee Movie 2 game adaption
- Chair (https://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/0516596_PE640434_S5.JPG)

Give me DOOM 2 please.  And maybe a new F-Zero

Bethesda's space RPG starfield might be at E3

Games I would like to see this year:

- TheRedPriest VR

I play it daily, and it's #####.

Anything announced I'd like would have to have a real retail release for me to get excited as I don't buy digital and anything digital is essentially as good as not ever being released.

That said, I'd like to see:

New F-Zero
New Castlevania
New Phoenix Wright

More Wii U ports of their top games to Switch (with all DLC/Extras included on cart)
More on Mega Man 11
ANYTHING on Resident Evil 2 Remake
ANYTHING without a ton of #####ing DLC/Season Pass/Loot Boxes built into the game to make it a "games as service" release and just a normal old fashioned #####ing complete game (this will never happen again, and if it does it will be an indie that is digital only so we're #####ed either way HOORAY!)

NO new Amiibos announced, or announcement of discontinuation of Amiibo.

I can't really think of anything else off the top of my head.

New F-Zero or Ace Attorney would be great.

I also want to see the new Fire Emblem for Switch announced already. Hopefully they won't pull that three version nonsense again...

And hell yes to more Wii U ports to Switch. Super Mario 3D World would be nice to have on Switch. And Wind Waker HD.

: Teelio   1 May 2018, 17:59:14

Games I would like to see this year:

- TheRedPriest VR

I play it daily, and it's #####.

Anything announced I'd like would have to have a real retail release for me to get excited as I don't buy digital and anything digital is essentially as good as not ever being released.

That said, I'd like to see:

New F-Zero
New Castlevania
New Phoenix Wright

More Wii U ports of their top games to Switch (with all DLC/Extras included on cart)
More on Mega Man 11
ANYTHING on Resident Evil 2 Remake
ANYTHING without a ton of #####ing DLC/Season Pass/Loot Boxes built into the game to make it a "games as service" release and just a normal old fashioned #####ing complete game (this will never happen again, and if it does it will be an indie that is digital only so we're #####ed either way HOORAY!)

NO new Amiibos announced, or announcement of discontinuation of Amiibo.

I can't really think of anything else off the top of my head.

Rez anything Konami related I wouldn't touch with a 40ft pole.  If you are getting a new Castlevania game it will either be a Pachinko or a mobile.

Hopefully they'll pull a bomberman R and actually make something good.

Have any of you tried Fast RMX out at all? I've been hungry for a new F-Zero for a while and I'm wondering it it's worth picking up.

F-Zero seems unlikely due to how madly popular Mario Kart has become. Not to mention they've included twisted track layouts from F-Zero into it. But who knows.... Crazier things have happened.

F-Zero GX was excellent and I would enjoy seeing a new one on the Switch, while retaining some elements that made GX so great and then some new features... Online racing a must-have, bigger and better vehicle customization... Perhaps a build-your-own track?

Surely, Nintendo will shed some light on the Virtual Console (which is long overdue), but the delay is understandable if they feared it would shadow the indie games and other titles they've been putting out lately... I suppose.

Fast RMX looks entertaining, but from the gameplay videos I've seen, looks like it would feel as iffy as Forza racing... Then again, I'm terrible with Forza.

Komani and Capcom are both pretty much in the toilet for me, but if Capcom can fix their release format problems and dial back the DLC waaaaaay back they'd be in a decent place.  Konami seems to be just really not even doing anything.  That said, if they do a proper 2D Castlevania (classic or metroidvania, I don't care), it may be good.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is confirmed for E3. Perhaps they'll show off some gameplay footage... or just another cinematic trailer....

For those that are into battle royale games, Fortnite will take the floor sometime as well (I guess with new content or cross-platform play?). This is the dawn of BR games and the mainstream is going to milk this cow dry rather quick, just like all other trends before it. Black Ops 4 and new Battlefield are supposedly testing the game style in their upcoming releases. This will be a trend for quite some time, it seems.

Not my cup of tea, honestly.... I only know as much about this as I've read up on.

Battle Royal games are the flavor of the month, so expect to see every #####ing franchise ever made come back or have it's sequel now be an MMO Battle Royal style game.

I never got into Battle Royale games honestly.  It's like the next fad and crap.  It will get old fast.

I haven't played any of these but the concept is appealing. I don't think that just because something is a fad that it's necessarily a bad thing.

One credit I will give specifically to Fortnite is that it's constant updates and the way the devs actually listen to players and give detailed patch notes, combined with recent outrage for different BS that companies have pulled (ex: EA with Battlefront), is helping to change the way companies are approaching yearly release games. I watched a few videos on this subject in particular but long story short companies are being forced to actually give a ##### about their consumer base for the first time in a while. Apparently the new CoD is evidence of this. Regardless of if the game is to your taste, it is something that's important for gaming as a whole.

EA's confrence was #####.  AS USUAL.  The only neat thing was Unravel 2

Microsoft's was actually very good.  Games galore.  I don't own an Xbox, but I'm glad for them. 

A lot of the Xbox stuff was multiplatform, though. But some interesting games did show up.

Sure as hell wasn't expecting new Kingdom Hearts III info from the Microsoft conference.

I'll be giving Tales of Vesperia a shot.  I never played the game, but I've heard good things about it.

On another note:  ##### YES DOOM II (ETERNAL)  Really enjoyed DOOM 2016 and hopefully it's more of the same. 

DOOM 2 and fallout 76?

it's a good Christmas for me!

EVERYTHING Microsoft is multi platform or "Also on PC".

The new Ori will be a pick up for me if it's retail.  This is the time to do a Cuphead retail if it's ever going to happen with the new character and stages.  We'll see.  Battletoads was an amusing announcement, but no details at all makes it extremely suspect as to if it will be any good or ##### (my money is on #####).

Literally don't care about anything else announced as it's on a platform I have no use for (XBOX) or it's from developers who make games I hate (EA, Bethusda, etc etc.).

I will say, a game that stuck me as being PARTICULARLY AWFUL was Jump Force.  My god did the art style/direction for that look like some kind of visual mish mash.  The ultra realistic locations and the anime style characters clash so badly, and on top of that the characters look like they're made of plastic or clay.  This game makes Marvel vs Capcom Infinite look good.

I see a lot of praise for the XBox press conference but it wasn't that special to me. Pretty much what Nova said, lot of cross platform. I don't know if I like them buying up a bunch of studios either. Only exclusive I've wanted from them is Cuphead on Switch which isn't happening (at least until a second full Cuphead game) so whatever.

Jump Force is the kind of thing I loathe. At least Cyberpunk continues to look up my alley, but I'll get it elsewhere.

Bethesda's was pretty decent but DOOM Eternal what really made me happy.

Square Enix's was underwhelming.  Nothing new or interesting.

Ubisoft was ok but didn't really stand out much.

So uhh, Smash Bros. topped itself yet again.

Yeah it looks amazing. I love that everyone is back.

And Proto Man and Bass appear in Mega Man's final smash too.

Mega Man and Jigglypuff are back!

Jiggs is my main so I'm happy.

I've always said "why not just have everyone back". Personally I never minded "clone" characters and they were all different enough (also Wolf was never a clone so I'm glad he's back). Bringing back all the stages is huge too, I'm really excited for that because I missed a lot of those.

This is a controversial opinion for a Smash-head like me, but I thought the WiiU game was the best one yet, and now it looks like they're on pace to put that steadily in the rearview. Amazing.

All the tweaks they did are great. Honestly I'm super hyped, especially with everyone being back. Even worthless ass Pichu is back and that makes me happy.

Also, I did enjoy the Wii U version as well.

The big ##### posting meme now seems to be Ultimate is a port, which it clearly is not.  They even added in all the autistic Melee "game play" ##### for that crowd.  The game looks absolutely phenomenal.  I only wonder if Snake will have his codec calls back (major minus points if not).  And if they'll do new amiibo for the fighters who don't have one.  Ridley, Daisey and Inkling Girl all are confirmed so far (Even if Inkling Girl is 99% exactly the same as the Splatoon 1 version).  They HAVE to do Ice Climber and Snake at least.  I guess we'll see.

Overall, Nintendo had a really solid show I think.

And then there's Resident Evil 2 Remake, which is everything I was afraid it was going to be, and then some.  I can not express my disappointment.  Holding out hope they'd actually go the REmake route with it was probably foolish from the start.  But the thing that REALLY got me was the god awful character models and changing the base costumes.  Clair is completely unrecognizable.  The "photo realistic" approach they too looks #####ing awful.  Well, at least we know now and can move on.

While I don't think NIntendo won E3, they certianly didn't lose either.

The community needs to trash this notion that you can "win" an expo. It's silly, toxic, and it's what leads to everything having to be more style than substance. Frankly, even though I watch I have a ton of distaste for E3 these days. In the live chats that's all you see "<blank> won E3!"

I'm tired of everything having to be a #####ing rock show for the sake of "winning" a damn business conference.

All the tweaks they did are great. Honestly I'm super hyped, especially with everyone being back. Even worthless ass Pichu is back and that makes me happy.

Also, I did enjoy the Wii U version as well.

Haha I actually loved Pichu. His strength came at a price, it was like playing Pikachu at a higher level.

I have all the Splatoon Amiibo so I likely won't be grabbing the "new" Inkling girl, but man I'm hoping for that Ice Climbers amiibo.

Anyone have hopes for certain new characters? Frankly I'm still burning a candle for Dig Dug.

King K. Rool, Sping Man, Bandana Dee

I think most of the characters I've wanted in Smash are already in at this point. I've never played Golden Sun myself but I feel like they should get a rep in this one finally.

Part of me was hoping Proto Man would be a clone or "echo" character for Mega Man, though.

I'm also surprised Bomberman is an assist trophy and not playable. But it's pretty great that Snake is back, as well as everyone else. Hopefully future Smash games will do the same and not cut anybody from the roster.

Also as a WTF 3rd party character

The Doomslayer.

I wouldn't say Microsoft "won" this year's E3, as some of their more dominant franchises were more than expected (Gears 5, new Halo installment)... I would have to give the trophy to Bethesda, because.... well, like Nintendo last year, all they did was tease The Elder Scrolls 6 with a shallow visual and all the fans are wetting their thongs right now, similar to how the "4" was teased from Nintendo last year.

To add, Fallout 76 does look like fun. Didn't they try to make a Fallout MMO years ago that got canned? Maybe this is their successor.... Or what have you.

I'm not too surprised they skipped out on MP4 news, but instead focused more on the upcoming Switch Pokemon games and Smash Bros. dominating the spotlight. Amazing to see Mega Man is back for another round. As far as future characters go, I would imagine Nintendo try and expose more of their underwhelming characters in the franchise. For example, maybe bringing more FF characters to the fray (Squall from FF8, Lightning from 13, or even Noctis from 15) or even Roll as a similar but-not-really equivalent to Mega Man. Who knows.

Skipped the Sony conference because they didn't really share anything too spectacular from what I've read up on. With Ubisoft, they surely teased a little more about Beyond Good and Evil 2 without sharing any actual gameplay (but then again, I only caught the latter half after I got off work).

It's funny that the Ubisoft showcase stream suffered from more streaming issues than any of the others I've experienced combined.... Are they teasing the new capabilities of their updated servers!?

EA was lackluster as usual. Anthem doesn't look like GOTY material, but knowing the casual fanbase, they will make the possible out of the impossible.

Overall, not the worst E3 showcases I've seen.

I really hope for more classic gaming characters rather than the Square-ification of Smash Bros. or the "every tough dark edgelord character". There's already Kingdom Hearts, I don't need every FF character showing up in every crossover game and the more "realistically" proportioned characters appear the less the classic ones fit in. I'm all for more characters than less, but I want to keep the fun balance of Smash Bros. For example, I think Ryu is the maximum amount of Street Fighter characters we need.

Sony bookended very well with Last Of Us Part 2 at the start and Spider-Man at the end. I never played The Last Of Us, I'm sick of zombie stuff, but Part 2 looks incredible enough I might try. I'm eagerly anticipating Spider-Man.

I think people just really want to hate on Anthem for reasons outside of what that game is. Basically everything with the combination of EA and Bioware is now "political".

To add, Fallout 76 does look like fun. Didn't they try to make a Fallout MMO years ago that got canned? Maybe this is their successor.... Or what have you.

Yep (http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Project_V13)

I think the Dojo listed 66 characters for Smash and 65 are known.  If true that leave one more character for the roster, and if I was a betting man, I'd say it will be an A.R.M.S. character.

New Woodman theme confirmed for Smash Bros Ultimate.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4632ulEnNc

That theme isn't what I... WOOD have picked, but it's a good remix at least.

And was that Black Hole Bomb?  And was that in his move set in 4?

Part of his Final Smash.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is #####.  #####.  As I feared, the RE4 camera just doesn't work.  It's dark as #####.  #####ing more flashlight ##### where you can't see a god damn thing besides a little dot.  All that redoing of locations that you can't #####ing see.  The character models photo realistic style clashes so bad with the realistic but still a bit stylized style the series used prior.  They changed folks costumes.  Clair is wholly unrecognizable between the two.  They took out the haunting soundtrack and replaced it with... silence.  And some ambient sound.  And some extremely soft, extremely simplified melody patches of the actual RE2 soundtrack that just... stops and turns into silence.  And ambient noises.  Because that's scary or some #####.  #####ing modern "explore your surroundings" #####ing directives popping up on your screen every #####ing 2 seconds.

I didn't expect a real RE1 Remake style remake.  I hoped against hope we'd get one, but between removing the games music and the horrid photo realistic character models, this isn't a remake, it's a completely different game.  I expected this, and somehow I'm still disappointed.  I literally do not like ANYTHING about this.

Was there anything at E3 that you actually liked aside from Smash?

Yeah.  But REmake2 is the only thing I out and out hated.

Was there anything at E3 all that you actually liked?

FTFY

My answer is the same, except for a lot more stuff I actually hate.

Pretty much what I would expect from E3. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uOPGkEJ56Q) (fixed link in edit)

That being said I haven't paid much attention this year. My android phone alerted me to some of it, though. Smash's "EVERYONE IS HERE!" was something to make me smile. I still don't know if I'm going to buy it but I would agree it's a very good selling point.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is tempting. Mostly because it seems to being going for the stuff I actually like about the Souls games while staying away from the stuff I'm not really into about Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3. I know their slogan has been "PREPARE TO DIE" since the first Dark Souls, but I'm not ACTUALLY into dying over and over and over again.

Rez mentioned Ori 2. I hadn't heard that was being developed. I really liked the first one, so there's that.

Anything else?

Your link derped out for some reason.

I was able to get to the video after taking out some stuff though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uOPGkEJ56Q

I only saw the Nintendo E3 Direct because I was working during all the E3 conferences. Only thing I was really hyped for (that I can remember right now) is Smash Ultimate and Kingdom Hearts III, but I was already hype for them before E3 anyway.

I forgot that Elder Scrolls VI was announced, but since all that was shown was a logo, it's not coming out anytime soon.

I love how that counts as an announcement. Something everyone knew they'd be making, and a little picture of a hill with text on it.

Yeah, when I heard it was announced I thought it meant it was coming this year or at least had some gameplay footage. If I remember right, they announced and released Fallout 4 in the same year.

It's that time of year again.... E3 2019 begins in June (as it normally does).

Seems like yesterday that the 2018 showcase was shown, but here we are once again. Another orbit around the sun and more games/hardware/etc. to anticipate.

What are all of you expecting to see this year? What do you wish to see?

There's a FF7 orchestra playing in LA around the time of E3 2019, which has led many people to speculate that we may receive more information on the remake this time around. Maybe.

Perhaps we will catch a faint glimpse into Metroid Prime 4 via Nintendo? Even though they scrapped production and handed the project back over to Retro, it wouldn't be surprising if we didn't get any information at all. Though one could dream....

Cyberpunk 2077, Halo Infinite, Borderlands 3, perhaps Gears of War 5 will be indulged during the showcases, among the usual unannounced titles up their sleeves. Maybe more on Death Stranding? (Sony is skipping this year's conference, it seems).

One interesting note is Valve's announcement of their own VR, the Index. Even though they've confirmed some games for their VR system, they have stated there will be an announcement for a "flagship VR game" later this year..... Doubt we'll see them at E3 though. When was the last time Valve actually attended an E3 conference?

Also, for a fun sit-at-home drinking game.... Take a shot during the Xbox conference for every time Phil Spencer says "gaming".

No Nintendo or Sony show doesn't leave much to really have.  I guess we'll see though.

i'm hoping for more metroid prime 4, halo infinite, doom eternal info and digital devolvers insanity

We will probably see Bayonetta 3, Astral Chain, Deamon X Machina, Luigi Mansion 3, Animal Crossing.  Then we'll probably get a new Paper Mario or Mario/Luigi game Maybe some other surprises.  Then we'll get the next DLC Fighter. 

Note:  Both Mega Man X & Doomguy are celebrating their 25th anniversaries this year.  Take that for what you will.

Daemon X Machina news would be great! I wouldn't expect much Metroid Prime 4 at this stage since they pretty much had to rewind it.

Note:  Both Mega Man X & Doomguy are celebrating their 25th anniversaries this year.  Take that for what you will.

Nothing. More likely to see some kind of MMX thing but I doubt much since if they wanted to release an anniversary game (which they basically did with the collection anyway) we'd already know about it.

Bethesda's conference was almost total garbage.  The only thing I wanted to see was Doom Eternal.  And that was very satisfying.  But why do they need to show that at the end of the conference? 

And it's CLEARLY OBVIOUS there were shills in the audience.

Did you see Battletoads?  Jesus that looks like hot garbage.  That style does not fit or serve the game at all.  It looks like they put zero effort into it.

Yeah.  The animation looks horrible.  But on the other hand, Streets of Rage 4 looks decent.  Not sure I like those supers though. 

Streets of Rage is passable if not disappointing.  It still looks like a cheap flash game to me.

Bethesda's conference was almost total garbage.  The only thing I wanted to see was Doom Eternal.  And that was very satisfying.  But why do they need to show that at the end of the conference? 

And it's CLEARLY OBVIOUS there were shills in the audience.

I think the most obvious shills were the ones getting excited about Commander Keen.

HOLY ##### BANJO IN SMASH.

Oh and Dragon Quest Hero too.  I guess

at least the psychopaths at ID software are doing good stuff in doom eternal

It's about time they brought the Mana Collection over to the US.

Stream made it look like Collection of Mana was digital only and I had a mini aneurysm, but later after the stream it was clarified that it will get a retail release in late August.

Other than that, the direct was amazing.  Nintendo destroyed the rest of the shows.  One of their best for sure.  It was only lacking Bayonetta 3 news/update.  I do wonder if the Witcher 3 is getting a retail release though since it's sure to be pretty big.  A "cartridge release" where you have to download the other 80 gigs of the game isn't a retail release.  If it does get one, I may actually pick it up.  I loved the Banjo reveal mirroring Krool's.  No one cares about another #####ing sword user though, so the DQ Hero was about as disappointing as could be.  Not that it matters, I don't buy DLC like that, but it would have been nice to have Banjo.  He's the best of the 5 so far by a mile.

Joker and Edrick aren't characters I want (But at the same time I don't not want them either.)  Plus allowing to chose various hero alts was nice.  As for E3 itself, I'm impressed.  There are alot of games I going to give a try and I can't wait for the Sieken Desentu 3 remake.  Looks better than the Secret of Mana remake.  Also Link's Awakening looks nice, and No More Heroes 3 is sweet as well.  

Nintendo and Square cleaning up the ##### the other companies (Except for ID software because Doom Eternal was glorious and Microsoft was actually decent).

Looks like Square is pulling a Capcom and has entered its redemption arc as well.  Let's see if they can keep it up.

Capcom is still doing awful practices though.  They're just doing it with better games instead of awful games.

Banjo has me hyped, obviously.

Would have liked some Bayonetta and Metroid but otherwise Nintendo is the only big three presentation I liked at all.

Nintendo had a loaded E3 this year.  The best by far, no doubt.

Aside from celebrity cameos, that was just an average E3. I've come to believe that every even year holds a stellar E3 show while the odd numbers are at least on par. 2020 is already looking promising.

Let's face it. Keanu Reeves won the show (and the internet). But as far as big-time presenters, Nintendo takes the cake.

My only gripe about Nintendo's show was a lack of discussion on their Nintendo Online subscription. I figured they would have announced SNES-streamed games for the service, or at the very least, announce a bundle on new NES ports.... More than the usual 2-3 they announce every month.

Still a good show, regardless.

No one wants a subscription game service.  We want an eshop where we can buy games and not have to #####ing worry about ANOTHER #####ing monthly subscription fee holding our content hostage.

Doesn't matter, it's happening. Unfortunately. And people said the same about Netflix, anyway.

This is another case of something evolving whether people like it or not, what we need to do from here is establish a long-term market for those of us that want to continue with actually owning copies of games (whether physical or not, but especially physical). Plenty (like the majority) of people will adapt to the streaming service method, it's inevitable.

And?  Netflix is still ##### compared to buying and owning material.  Because people have largely thrown away their rights doesn't make it good.  The only difference to movies/music vs games is you can record a program and play it back and not lose anything for the experience.  Streaming games makes it impossible to actually PLAY it later.  All you could do is record a play through and watch it later passively.

We need laws to protect us as consumers.  We should be entitled to a local copy of anything we buy, and that should be a MANDATORY option, not just stream only.  It's the only way to protect consumers, and more importantly preserve media.

You really defend certain things as if they're people, even if others are agreeing. Again, I happen to agree with everything you said here, which is exactly why in my previous post I said establishing a long term market for the rapidly dying breed of  physical gamers is of utmost importance.

I have nothing but contempt for the game streaming movement. Not only does it ##### the consumer over in the ways you listed but it fingers people that live in rural areas too.

Our internet infrastructure is ##### pretty much everywhere in this country, and even if it wasn't, ISPs overcharge the ##### out of what they have now.  With internet fast and reliable enough to do that kind of game cloud streaming no one could afford the internet bills even if it was up to snuff.  So really, it #####s everyone.

I don't even understand the technology of game streaming. On one hand I think it could be great. People are all about how you don't need some super powerful computer to play certain games, and those physical limitations are blown away, but... and Mike already touched on this, but how is the connection not just the new bottleneck?

I can't tell if this is technology so radical I can't wrap my brain around it, or if it really is just a well-marketed bad idea tailored to make ISPs a ton of money, or a bit of both.

Streaming is hot garbage and I hope it never gets off the ground.

Keep in mind that streaming also completely deprives you of any ownership of the games.  You never even have a local copy, it's all stored off site.  This exacerbates the problem of games or content disappearing once licenses expire.  Don't think for a moment that isn't what developers want to do so they have total control over what you can buy or do.  It's the worst possible option for gamers and consumers, and the ONLY thing really holding it back is the decrepit internet infrastructure and pricing we have on it.

Streaming is hot garbage and I hope it never gets off the ground.

I don't like the idea of streaming games, but that's what I thought about things like streaming TV shows before the technology was there. Watching choppy ass stuff on megavideo had us thinking it would never be feasible to 100% stream, but things have a way of catching up when there's money to be made.

Ownership issues aside, the tech works--But at least while the Netflix model isn't financially successful it isn't proven to be safe... yet.

I don't even understand the technology of game streaming. On one hand I think it could be great. People are all about how you don't need some super powerful computer to play certain games, and those physical limitations are blown away, but... and Mike already touched on this, but how is the connection not just the new bottleneck?

I guarantee you're correct, it's just shifting what stage of the bottleneck occurs in.

I can't tell if this is technology so radical I can't wrap my brain around it, or if it really is just a well-marketed bad idea tailored to make ISPs a ton of money, or a bit of both.

I'd say bit of both but probably leaning more on the radical tech side. They're gonna push it because the only thing better than making you buy their product is making you pay for it monthly and you don't get to actually OWN it. I feel like they're basically thinking that the technology is nearly there and they can push it, even if it sucks, and eventually make it the norm.

I don't like streaming games for the same reason I don't like digital only games.  You don't own them.  Streaming a passive experience vs an interactive one can't be compared.  You can record a movie or song, and play it back and it's the same as streaming it because you passively interact with it.  Games require input and interaction, and you can't replicate that by doing a recording.

I get enough input delay streaming from my PC to the HTPC in the living room over a gigabit connection. Adding the 60ms round trip time to the closest game streaming servers makes game unplayable, if you have any iota of skill.

It's fine for a game with no real aiming or reaction time, like a playable storybook type thing, but I'm used to zero delay.

I think the only game streaming service worth a shot is Shadow, because you're not simply streaming from a library, it's just a high end gaming PC equivalent in a server rack that you treat as your own remote desktop. You have to have your own digital copies of PC games, and it's just a PC you rent to stream them from.

Even then, I think shadow would only be worth it if you were extremely close to the datacenters that house them, which I think can keep input delay under 15ms and round trip time under 30, which is better than a lot of TVs.

I get enough input delay streaming from my PC to the HTPC in the living room over a gigabit connection. Adding the 60ms round trip time to the closest game streaming servers makes game unplayable, if you have any iota of skill.

I'm not trying to advocate for the idea, but I will play Devil's advocate a bit: Don't focus so much on how it works currently this is about long term business models (I mean, this stuff is all over CNN Business and everything), but in defense of that it's already worked in Asia where internet speeds are nearly 3x faster than North America, and that's realistically the bigger and better market to target. Although Stadia won't be able to hit China, and I feel like Project xCloud is more geared towards americans (and will likely fail).

I don't know much about gigabit connections but that's still not the norm, it's anecdotal really, so we have to think about this in terms of national averages. For example, in a July 2019 ranking of worldwide internet speeds (https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/tech/e3-video-games-cloud-gaming/index.html), the United States had and average speed of 32.89mbps, and Japan's was 42.77mbps (a difference 5 minutes on a 5GB download), and Taiwan's speed was... 85.02mbps (#1 rank worldwide).

I don't like cloud gaming one bit, I feel I have to keep reiterating that, but it's not hard to see that it could become technologically viable in under 10 years.

I think as far as sheer download speed is concerned, most places in the US are capable of streaming 1080p games. My biggest concern is the latency. If I'm streaming a game in Maine, and the closest datacenter housing the servers that are actually running the games is near Boston, every command I input won't make it to the server for 20-40ms at best, and the return footage from that action won't make it for another 20-40ms.

I think the biggest hurdle is that things are spaced out in North America. Every wirecenter that a connection has to go through adds latency as signals are converted between copper and fiber and back again.

NYC? Most of California? Atlanta? Perfect places.

Anything outside of Toronto in Canada? The rest of the US? Gross.

And what I was saying about my connection: I'm talking about literally only my personal connection directly wired between computers. Without leaving the apartment I still find the delay to be abysmal.

I actually work for a telecom engineering firm now (mostly designing infrastructure), and although my job doesn't deal with actual end user speeds, I've got a greater understanding of the tiers of communication at state level installations now.


I'll jump on the DEVIL'S advocate train as well though: as fiber to the home becomes more common and latency is limited by the speed of light without resistance, I can definitely see it permeating the market in the next 10 years. If only telecoms weren't just pocketing all the government money and were actually using it on infrastructure more, we might have already been there. I actually do part of the government funded work at my job, and seeing the budget waste is disheartening.

Yeah it’s crazy how far behind the US and Canada are in the internet game. That TOR1 data center is basically dwarfing all of our other ones. 2nd largest country in the world and we’re not nearly connected well enough.

*Revives topic because he can*

Well E3 2021 has come and gone, and just wanted to say

HOLY ##### METROID DREAD IS ALIVE, ADVANCED WARS REMAKE, PROPER MARIO PARTY AND KAZYUA IN SMASH!

Nintendo was the only good conference next to Microsoft

I'd be a lot more excited for Metroid if it wasn't a lazy, ugly ass 2.5D mess.  I didn't care much for the 3DS Samus Returns (really, AM2R was a thousand times better) in either look or play (I hated the melee smacks and crap).  Dread is made by the same studio, and it shows.  I'll probably still pick it up, but it looks like trash, as almost all 2.5D games do.

The only thing that personally got me excited was the port of Fatal Frame 5 to the Switch since the Wii U version was digital only.  Then I find out it's going  multi-platform (fine) AND it's DIGITAL ONLY AGAIN, on EVERYTHING.  Jesus Christ.  Well, whatever.  ##### KT.  Maybe they'll be an English-Asia physical copy.  Guess we'll see.

I did like the Advance War remakes, but again, I'd bet money those are digital only.  Just like the Famicom Detective Club was.  So another one I won't be picking up I'd like.

That aside, Nintendo had the best showing at E3 by FAR.  It wasn't even a contest.

Some day, Switches loaded with digital-only titles that are no longer downloadable anywhere will be worth serious bank.

Like phones with Flappy Birds or PS3s with PT.

I gasped at the sight of Advance Wars before realizing it was just a remake.

Still, it could be neat to play those online.

Metroid Dread surprised me and I stuck around for some of the gameplay of that. It looks as good as I expected Samus Returns to be, for sure.

I also watched the Elden Ring trailer and Zelda, of course.

None of what I saw impressed me, but I think that's just me being old.

   Wasn't expecting any Metroid news at all, much less any hope for a sequel to Fusion. I'll take Metroid 5 over Prime 4 any given day. My only concern for this title is if they can truly hold up to the "Dread" title, which is quite a claim considering the follow-up to Fusion's SA-X. From what was shown in the videos, these E.M.M.I.s look less "dread"-ful than the SA-X and more so "a-pain-in-the-ass". Besides, crawling machines don't come off as terrifying as an overpowered, soulless clone. Never played 3DS' Samus Returns, so not sure what to think of gameplay here. Still have to pick it up when it does release, because HNNNGHH METROID.

   Got a few fun games to hype about for the rest of the year. Psychonauts 2 is looking like a real blast. New WarioWare and Mario Party as well, only because my lady loves "games within games".

   I know nothing about Legend of Zelda (accumulated 20 minutes playtime across the whole series). Don't care about all that news.

   But hey, Monkeyball's 20th anniversary.

   

None of what I saw impressed me, but I think that's just me being old.

I definitely hear you there.

Honestly, the only way I would've truly gotten excited is if they'd announce a Dragon Quest Builders 3. And until that day comes I vow to be dour and morose.

Like phones with Flappy Birds or PS3s with PT.

I didn't know phones with flappy bird were worth anything extra. I looked up how much one sold for and I am now depressed.

Honestly, to get me excited a game needs to be physically released, complete, from an established series I like, have actual gameplay.  Anything that launches with "planned dlc for the next 4 years!", microtransactions, games as service, season passes, digital only, or mobile are instantly garbage or a pass for me.  New IPs rarely tick many boxes because they're riddled with the last list of awful game things.

Honestly, to get me excited a game needs to be physically released, complete, from an established series I like, have actual gameplay.  Anything that launches with "planned dlc for the next 4 years!", microtransactions, games as service, season passes, digital only, or mobile are instantly garbage or a pass for me.  New IPs rarely tick many boxes because they're riddled with the last list of awful game things.

You should pick up Hades on Switch, if you haven't already. The only 'pros' box it doesn't tick is "from an established series I like." Mikero and I absolutely adore the game. We've got 200 hours between the 2 of us.

I'm aware of Hades.  But it's a rougelike, which I hate as a genre.  Though in this case it actually ties directly into the plot so I might give it a pass.  I just broadly detest randomly generated ##### and losing stuff, which is pretty much all rougelikes are.  I would kind of like to pick it up though.

The only stuff that really excited me for E3 was the Advance Wars remake and the new Cruis'n title, the latter which I can't wait to share with my oldest son.

I was disappointed with Capcom's presentation, and had read rumors that Square and Capcom were actually going to be part of Nintendo's presentation as well, which disappointed me there too. Didn't help that there were rumors of a new Mega Man title.