Dcubed

Well at least it’s a BIT original!

So they’ve chucked Keanu Reeves into Cyberpunk and the Terminator into Gears 5? Who’s next? Danny Devito in Halo? not gonna lie; would actually want that...

Wow! That’s huge! They bought Double Fine!

Whelp! That’s getting delayed!

Does Keanu come with Game Pass?

Oh my God The bleeping is freaking hilarious in the Cyberpunk trailer

Microsoft are telling people to watch Nintendo’s conference!? ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN!!

Nah, we’re allowing Animal Crossing here; so your list is fine

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Resident Evil 4 Donkey Kong Jungle Beat This was a hard list to whittle down, and there’s plenty of others that could’ve made the top 5; but I feel that this list is quintessentially GameCube

Actually looks alright; if a bit basic with its combat mechanics, platforming and level design. It's tempting to be cynical about the whole thing, but what they showed looks alright really. Refreshingly honest; can't remember the last time a AAA publisher just released an actual gameplay trailer! I get the feeling that there won't be enough variety in its mechanics, platforming, enemies and set pieces to sustain its length (repetition was already starting to creep in in just this short gameplay snippet), but honestly? It looks fine.

TBH, they kinda did... It was more of an announcement of an announcement though.

So it’s basically like the last splatfest for Splatoon 1? Very cool that they’re rotating every stage though!

Unlike physical card packs, video game gambling has one very big distinguishing and insidious key difference... ... the developer is always rigging the odds in real-time... With physical card packs and collectibles, the physical thing is out there and is immutable. It can also be traded and sold to get what you want. Video games though? Those scumbags behind those loot boxes are purposely rigging the odds against you in real-time; and they have full control over distribution between players. That makes it SO much worse for problem gamblers! They are laser targeted in real-time and are actively exploited. The developers know exactly what they’re doing at any one time; and have so much data they’ve collected on them that they know exactly how to exploit their every weakness. Playing a loot box game is basically like pulling the slots in a Las Vegas casino; the house always wins. This industry has already proven that it can’t control itself. The time for self-regulation has already passed; now they need outside regulation.

I think that the ultimate goal would be to build up a new “Rare Universe” if you will; but Playtonic is ultimately only a small studio, there’s only so much that they can make. I think their current goal though is more Banjo Pilot than Diddy Kong Racing if you will.

Well they said that this is intentionally not a sequel to the original game; but that they’d still be interested in doing a sequel at a later date. So this is exactly the kind of spinoff game you’d expect from that approach.

A couple of surprises tonight wouldn’t be too... err... surprising. It’s not impossible that the next Smash DLC character could get announced tonight; while we’re sure to see some unannounced course mechanics from SMM2. At the very least, the SMM2 one will no doubt be an entertaining watch! SMM blind run races are always a riot!

I didn’t actually enjoy this one much on PS3 really. Lovely presentation, utterly mediocre and uninteresting gameplay. Your typical Level 5 RPG really.

I'm just annoyed that I have to already conceed one of my Bingo card squares before the show has even started...

Haven't done a set of these for a good few years... Here're my bingo cards for this year! I hate how I have to already knock off one of my squares as wrong... Thanks leaks!

Jesus! There won't be anything left to leak by the end of the day!

So... the leaks have started! Ninja Theory's new game for Xbox has just leaked; so I figured that it might be a good idea to have all of that leak discussion separated into its own thread, since some people here like to go into E3 without having anything spoilt beforehand... So post your leaks and spoilers 'ere!

Open world games are inherently much easier to make than a handcrafted world, with intricate level design and meaningful gameplay. That's why everyone has moved towards them. It's much cheaper and easier to make; and people are hoodwinked by the approach because they're enthralled with their sheer size. Oh wow! Look at all this massive landscape with absolutely NOTHING in it! Woohoo! So Modern! So Impressive! So Exciting! Even you've been fooled by the open world approach here. Making a Pokemon RPG in HD is an enormous task. Look at what S-E did with the Final Fantasy series; even during the PS2 era, they simply had to give up on making interconnected world maps because it was too big of an ask for them. Eventually they devolved into a linear corridor (with nothing meaningful in it other than cutscenes), to a vapid and empty open world with nothing in it (and it took them a decade to make that!). Every major RPG developer gave up on trying to make traditionally styled RPGs when the PS3 era came around because it was just unviable to make that kind of game in HD anymore. Meanwhile, Game Freak have actually managed to keep making handcrafted Pokemon games, with handcrafted worlds. Something that more or less no other RPG developer has managed to do (outside of Monolith Soft; who took a very different approach anyway). This Wild Area would be the entirety of the game if anyone else was making it; here? It's just a hub area that you travel through to get to the real meat of the game... And yet Game Freak is the one who is being lazy apparently... I take a lot of grievance with the approach that Game Freak has taken with the past two Pokemon games (X/Y and Sun/Moon), but their commitment to making handcrafted experiences is one that I have nothing but applause for. Managing to fight back against the modern trend for procedurally generated worlds is something that I absolutely salute them for! Name another RPG on a console, released within the last decade, that has anything even close to the level of intricate world design, environmental interactivity, mini games and meaningful out-of battle (never even mind in-battle; where there have been countless new additions and changes throughout the series) gameplay as even the worst mainline Pokemon game? Go ahead, I'll wait...

It looks like they've gone for making a game of a much smaller and much more reasonable scope this time around; so there's a much bigger chance of this game being good! I've always felt that Playtonic had it in them to make something special; but YL was just simply too ambitious a project for them. This seems much more in-line with what they can reasonably output as a studio, so I'm really glad to see them take another crack at the IP with something of a more reasonable scope! Really looking forward to it; it makes a great first impression!

Coming out this year on Switch (and other platforms), it very much resembles Donkey Kong Country Returns/Tropical Freeze, but with additional top-down stages that resemble 2D Zelda! Looks really good! Colour me hyped!

It's nice that we're starting to see N64 options coming into the market, but this looks like it probably won't be all that great... Hopefully it'll encourage competitors to come in with something better though. Even if it's not an FPGA, I'd love a good quality emulator box solution that plays original carts! A way to play N64 games (that aren't available on the VC), which aren't riddled with horrendous slowdown and don't look like buttered arse on modern displays would literally be a dream come true!)