Zero Punctuation: E3 2013

[Something Amyss]

Don't worry, Yahtzee, there's still plenty wrong with the Xbone.

He said in the Remember Me review that he was doing E3 this week.

Like that's going to stop the usual cries of "WHY DIDN'T YOU REVIEW (game I wanted reviewed) YAHTZEE?"

 

[Evonisia]

Don't worry, Yahtzee, there's still plenty wrong with the Xbone.

He said in the Remember Me review that he was doing E3 this week.

Like that's going to stop the usual cries of "WHY DIDN'T YOU REVIEW (game I wanted reviewed) YAHTZEE?"

Heh, true

Of course it'd be even funnier if he never reviews a game they want (obviously not this one he's said he's reviewing it). I wanted a Gears Judgment review in March but that was during the "I'm having a break from mature shooters" period he may or may not still be going through.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

I do think it's funny how the only company who actually tries anything outside the box is Nintendo. AAA devs just HATE having to go for depth over spectacle

 

[hornedcow]

Seriously though, when did Backward's compatibility become a dirty word in consoles. I mean that was the main selling point of the PS2 (arguably one of the best selling consoles in recent history). Yeah, yeah I know the excuses for lack of backward compatibility are basically summed up as:

"We want you to buy the same games again"

From what I understand, it's not on the PS4 because including an extra Cell processor on the console would really jack up the cost. No idea why they couldn't have used an emulator or why it's not on the X-Box, but there you go.

OT: Great episode. I still feel like Yahtzee's being mildly hyperbolic about the next-gen's prospects, and I'm not sure why he's suddenly got a narc on for console exclusives, but his disclaimer at the end was still hilarious.

 

[MiskWisk]

I get the feeling the mods are going to have some fun with the hammer further up from me.

OT: Pretty much bang on here. Ryse (or QTE: Rome Edition) looked especially awful. I mean really, what we saw was one long QTE. Who in their right mind thought that was fun?

 

[Evonisia]

Seriously though, when did Backward's compatibility become a dirty word in consoles. I mean that was the main selling point of the PS2 (arguably one of the best selling consoles in recent history).

The Playstation 2 is the best selling gaming console of all time, about 200 million sales.

 

[shrekfan246]

Seriously though, when did Backward's compatibility become a dirty word in consoles. I mean that was the main selling point of the PS2 (arguably one of the best selling consoles in recent history). Yeah, yeah I know the excuses for lack of backward compatibility are basically summed up as:

"We want you to buy the same games again"

Actually, considering how many consoles before the PS2 had backwards compatibility (precisely two straight out of the box, one released in '86 and the second released in '98), I'd say it's more a question of when did backwards compatibility become such a holy sanctum for gamers that couldn't be defiled by the evil console manufacturers.

Seriously, PC gaming is looking like it will truly shine this generation. Now that developers have gone past the 'let's make them upgrade their graphics hardware every 3 months to boost our nVidia/ATI shares.'.

The rise in the indie-dev market may also have something to do with that.

My PC has hardware from 2009. It still runs everything, indie or AAA, perfectly fine on mostly high settings.

I don't know if you're being facetious and engaging in hyperbole, but it's a fairly common misconception that you need to constantly upgrade your PC to stay on the curve for playing games, and it's just not true at all. I'll probably need to upgrade this or next year, but if it weren't for a new series of consoles being released I could probably get another two years out of my hardware at least.

 

[Supernova1138]

Seriously though, when did Backward's compatibility become a dirty word in consoles. I mean that was the main selling point of the PS2 (arguably one of the best selling consoles in recent history). Yeah, yeah I know the excuses for lack of backward compatibility are basically summed up as:

"We want you to buy the same games again"

From what I understand, it's not on the PS4 because including an extra Cell processor on the console would really jack up the cost. No idea why they couldn't have used an emulator or why it's not on the X-Box, but there you go.

OT: Great episode. I still feel like Yahtzee's being mildly hyperbolic about the next-gen's prospects, and I'm not sure why he's suddenly got a narc on for console exclusives, but his disclaimer at the end was still hilarious.

The problem with emulating the XBox 360 and PS3 is that it requires way too much computing power. Even the most powerful desktop PC doesn't have the power necessary to emulate the current gen consoles, the PS4 and Xbone certainly don't have the necessary processing power to do software emulation of the PS3 or 360. The only way to do backwards compatibility would be with a hardware solution, basically stick a 360 or PS3 into the new consoles to make the old games work, and that would jack up the cost significantly. This is simply what happens when the console makers decide they want to change CPU architecture every god damn generation.

 

[Mr. Q]

I liked that last part where Yahtzee mentioned Microsoft's retraction but listed the other flaws in the games industry. You can't expect a 180 miracle, Ben. Baby steps, man, baby steps. ;P

 

[anthony87]

Hold the fucking phone....

THERE'S CRIPSY MINT M&M's?

 

[Azure Knight-Zeo]

Looks like Yahtzee's jumping on the anti-exclucive bandwagon.

 

[Doom972]

Or Deadpool?

Didn't that game just come out yesterday? Just saying...

Which makes it more surprising that none of the reviewers I count on haven't reviewed it yet. Most reviewers get early copies (Not sure about Yahtzee though).

 

[kailus13]

At least with Order we might get some unique weapons. Like the lightning gun they showed.

I get the feeling Ryse started as a joke between developers that somehow snowballed into an actual game. "Let's take Call of Duty and remove all the guns! HAHAHAHA"

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Caligula of Duty...stop and think about this concept...It would start out with a 5 minute, 1st-person cut-scene then go 3rd person from there SO AS TO BEHOLD THE GODLY SPLENDOR OF CALIGULA THE GREAT! Gameplay itself would be like Saint's Row only taking place in ancient Rome. Vehicles would consist of chariots and, horses and unlike every other free-roaming sandbox with free choice, Caligula the Game will not only allow you but INSIST that you marry a horse and add it to your harem (the harem will act as a sort of level-up system: you know you've hit level 100 when you've married a Unicorn).

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

Why does everyone hate the combat in Mirror's Edge? I found it both fair, and fucking badass when you jump off a wall and roundhouse kick someone in the face, or jump down with enough precision to land on someone.
Other than that, I agree with Yahtzee. This next generation isn't looking too good yet, and even the rampant optimism of the Bungie.net forums can't keep me from being really worried that Destiny isn't going to be very good.

 

[Megacherv]

From what I understand, it's not on the PS4 because including an extra Cell processor on the console would really jack up the cost. No idea why they couldn't have used an emulator or why it's not on the X-Box, but there you go.

Emulating the cell would be pretty much impossible, it's such a bizarre architecture that you wouldn't get that good a performance out of it. EVEN IF you somehow had each core in the PS4 emulating one of the 'cores' in thhe PS3, the PS3's PPE and SPEs are much more powerful in terms of pure clock-speeds (3.2GHz insane number crunchers is what they were pretty much)

 

[DTWolfwood]

Whats wrong with the Steam box sounding like a Victorian Sex Aid? the prudes will think its classy considering its victorian and the rest of us will have sex with it. WIN WIN!

 

[karma9308]

Shame you had to withdraw the original sin joke, I literally spit my coke out at that one.

 

[Colt47]

So, pretty much the same story we've been hearing about games in the AAA industry for the last four years or so. In Sony's defense, they got a good set up going with PS+ and free independent publishing. Depending on how the indie terms are worded it might be possible to see games in the middle tier pick up on that free publishing as well and possibly break up the pricing monopoly of $60 per new game.

Otherwise I've kind of resigned my hopes for seeing truly exciting stuff at E3. There isn't as much wonder and experimentation taking to stage as there used to be, which is what generated a lot of the spectacle of the olden days, and indie games lack the development muscle to have the same kind of deep impact the middle tier publishers did back before they became... well AAA publishers. (Note, there ARE exceptional cases for indie titles, though.)