E3 2014: Day 3

It's all over.  The sun has set on the last day of gaming madness.  I managed to squeeze in a number of huge titles today.  After this, I am going to take a day or two to think about what I saw and then I'll give my overall impression for the entire week.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

For Gamers:

Borderlands in space.  Seriously, do I need to say more?  Okay fine, Claptrap is a playable character.  If that doesn’t sell you, nothing I can say will.  The entire game takes place on the moon.  You play as the vault hunters hired by Handsome Jack to find a vault.  The low gravity and oxygen-deprived environments lead to an experience that is slightly slower than Borderlands 2, but personally I liked that.  It keeps the game from turning into a quake-style twitch shooter.  I loved both of the characters that I got to try, so I expect to get this game soon after it comes out.

For Parents:

Borderlands is known for fast paced, ridiculous action with significant amounts of blood and gore that often gets lost in the flashy explosions and elemental damage.  Based on my demo and my experience with previous Borderlands games, I expect this game to be appropriate for 16 year olds.

Civilization: Beyond Earth

For Gamers:

Take Civilization 5, slap in a healthy dose of Starcraft, and that’s Beyond Earth in a nutshell.  The core gameplay structure remains exactly the same, but there are a lot of new and improved elements that all fit in the theme of the “post-Earth space colonization”.  While I don’t think the game is different enough from Civ5 to merit $60, it was definitely interesting enough to warrant a future purchase.

For Parents:

The Civilization games have always been about methodical city building with equal parts warfare, culture, politics, economics, and history.  It is an excellent tool for demonstrating the basic concepts behind international relations and how certain conflicts can be resolved without resulting to force of arms.  This game will almost certainly be appropriate for all ages.

The Order: 1886

For Gamers:

So here’s the thing, I saw the gameplay demo for The Order at the Sony press conference and went into E3 wanting to know more about the story, because the demo explained very little about who I was, who “The Order” was, who was fighting and why, etc. etc.  Unfortunately, the E3 event only included the exact same gameplay demo I saw before.  Granted, this time I actually got to try the game which is cool.  The thermite rifle is an awesome idea, but without any sort of story or context I get concerned that the lack of story at E3 means that there is an overall lack of story.  There are too many shooters with an interesting mechanic or two but completely devoid of deep stories.  I don’t need one more on my list.

For Parents:

Blood was present in the game but seemed to vary depending on which weapons the player was using.  There was some sort of arc lightning rifle that cause enemies to explode into blood and bits, but I only saw this used once briefly.  My primary weapon was a “thermite rifle”.  I could fire a flare out and then open fire with the rifle.  My rounds would then ignite and light any enemies on fire.  Based on this content I expect the game to be appropriate for 16 year olds, but that could go up depending on the rest of the content.

Driveclub

For Gamers:

I am a huge fan of arcade-style racing games where damage and physics matter less than big explosions and sometimes ridiculous speeds.  Driveclub pushes the territory of realism without going too far into it to lose my interest.  I didn’t get a chance to try out the customization (something this game is evidently known for), but my race felt fairly smooth and easy to pick up and try.  Considering I was simultaneously testing the “PS4 to Vita streaming” function, and thus playing with the PS Vita instead of the normal PS4 controller, this is pretty impressive.

For Parents:

This is a very simple racing game with no out-of-car functionality.  From the parts that I played, it should be appropriate for all ages.

Little Big Planet 3

For Gamers:

I played Little Big Planet for the first time a few years ago and was surprised at how much fun the simplicity of the game was.  It’s a fairly simple platformer with some excellent coop gameplay.  LBP3 takes this one step further by having different characters, each with a unique special ability that can help with certain challenges and puzzles.  My brief time playing this game was just as awesome as I expected.  Find a friend or three, get this game, and be prepared to have a great time.

For Parents:

This game is designed to be appropriate for all ages.  It’s also a ton of fun for all ages.

Sniper Elite 3

For Gamers:

There are a few things I loved about this game.  First, the ability to not only choose which rifle, secondary, and sidearm I wanted but also to fully customize my rifle was awesome.  I loved being able to outfit my rifle with whatever parts I wanted.  The sniping sections were a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, the “stealth” sections outside of combat were much less fun and much more tedious.  After alerting the enemies and then slipping away, the enemies never returned to their previous actions.  I killed myself by throwing a grenade and having the blast kill me while I was behind a set of sandbags.  This game made me want to give Sniper Elite V2 a second try, but I’m not going to rush out and get this game just yet.

For Parents:

Normal combat involves blood and some knife takedowns, but what really makes this game brutal is the sniper shots.  Since this is a sniper game, the sniping sections are emphasized.  If the player manages to score a killing blow, the camera will sometimes focus in on the round and view the target in x-ray vision.  The player watches in graphic detail as the round penetrates the enemy, breaks bones, and decimates internal organs.  It’s a very brutal process.  I expect this game to, at minimum, be appropriate for 16 year olds.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

For Gamers:

Dragon Age: Inquisition is about as far from Dragon Age 2 as possible.  The worldspace is massive, the story is interesting, there are a ton of different party members, and the customization options are back in full force.  There are four playable races, each race has the option to be male or female, and each type of character is fully voice acted.  This game is either going to be an awesome experience or a total flop.  Personally, I’m expecting it to lean much more towards the former.

For Parents:

Dragon Age games are known for including violence, sexuality, and substance use.  Usually all are put into an appropriate context, but their presence is still a major factor.  Based on the history of the game franchise, I expect this game to be appropriate for 16 to 18 year olds.

Fable: Legends

For Gamers:

I have been burned far too much with Fable games to recommend this regardless of how I feel after playing the game.  The portion I played was an asynchronous multiplayer.  I played as a villain, directing small numbers of troops around a battlefield while I tried to kill a few players on the ground.  The mode felt fairly confusing and I had very little time to set up.  It was entertaining to take advantage of my opponents’ weaknesses, but I don’t think it was enough fun to keep me coming back for more.

For Parents:

The multiplayer portion in which I participated may not be representative of the majority of the gameplay.  Violence in Fable has always been fairly mild, but sexuality and substance use have both been fairly high.  Without seeing the other modes of this game in greater detail, I won’t know for sure what age this is appropriate for.  As of this point, I can’t even provide an accurate estimate.

Sunset Overdrive

For Gamers:

I didn’t really enjoy this game at all.  The developers and previews made the grinding jumping action seem smooth and seamless but it was surprisingly difficult to control.  Here’s the thing, I was stuck in a horde mode where enemies would come in waves and attack these tanks of energy drinks.  That means the enemies tend to localize in one point.  This game forces the player to keep track of where they’re moving, where they’re shooting, where the enemies are, where the traps are, how much ammunition they have, and where their friends are all at the same time.  It’s a ridiculous amount of information to process during a very short, frantic time.  On top of that, I could never tell if my shots were doing any damage.  I would use weapon after weapon and, unless the weapon lead to a huge explosion, I couldn’t tell if I was even hurting my enemy in any significant way.

This game is far too easy to compare to Borderlands.  And personally, between the two, I had a lot more fun trying out the Borderlands Pre-Sequel than I did with this game.

For Parents:

This game has so many colorful explosions and fast action that it was difficult to tell if there was any blood or gore.  I’m almost positive there is, but I couldn’t see it from my time playing the game.

Battlefield: Hardline

For Gamers:

Battlefield: Hardline is a bit of a mixed bag for me.  The multiplayer is pretty awesome but overall I’m not sure the content differs enough from Battlefield 4 to justify buying a whole new game.  I have yet to get deeply into the new modes, though, so those might be able to do the trick.  Some of the vehicles are pretty awesome though (like the turret SUV), and I certainly can’t complain about driving police vehicles with flashing lights.

I’m mostly a fan of the single-player and co-op sections of games.  And while Visceral has a track record of some well-written single player games (like Dead Space), let’s not forget that they also have a track record of some poorly written games (like Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel).  Without more information on the single player and its story, I won’t know for sure if I could recommend this game.

For Parents:

Hardline’s single player is still a complete mystery to me.  I know that parts of it will involve police finding illicit narcotics, but whether or not there is any narcotics use is completely up in the air.  The multiplayer, though, is pretty straightforward.  Hits might result in some blood but it will be difficult to see given the distances between players, smoke effects, muzzle flash, and a variety of other factors.

If you want to gauge what this will end up looking like, take a look at the multiplayer for Battlefield 4.  They should be extremely similar in terms of overall mature content.  As a result, I expect this game to be appropriate for 12 to 14 year olds, but that may change depending on what content is included in the single player.