Ubisoft jumped straight in with the game everyone knew was coming. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. And they got Miyamoto on stage to talk about it. Ubisoft were basically given the freedom to take Mario to a place he’s never been before.
Such is the result of this game. A strategic RPG that brings the rabbids into the Mushroom Kingdom, where some partner up with Mario and co. while others seek to wreak havoc. The game’s battles are about fighting these rabbids in turn-based combat that actually has some depth with positioning and such. New attacks and weapons can be unlocked through game progression, and this is Nintendo’s big August game, with it releasing 29/August.
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Microsoft put up an excellent fight and came away stronger than EA ever could hope this E3. Scorpio has a new name – the Xbox One X. A focus on power, to bring the best looking games possible, even on 1080p screens. Compatibility, to allow all games and accessories to cross over to the more powerful hardware.
Craftsmanship, allowing all that power to fit inside a shell smaller than the original One. A liquid-cooled vapour chamber allows server-scale cooling in the console. All this for $499. The Xbox Backward Compatibility program gets an upgrade in the form of original Xbox games being released soon. Crimson Skies will be one of the first on the service, and these games are being reworked to look their best on Xbox One. And as for the games… Well. Forty-two games, twenty-four of which are console exclusive. Ready to count them down? EA really hit it out with Star Wars this year. Everything else was within forty minutes at the start. So before we get into the main event of Star Wars Battlefront 2, let's run down everything else.
Battlefield 1 gets new content in the form of In the Name of Tsar. This expansion is adding six new maps, focusing on the eastern battles of Russia. FIFA and Madden get shown with a focus on eSports after. Need For Speed Payback gets gameplay, and it honestly looks like an upgraded Hot Pursuit. Driving and taking others out to reach the mission objective, and swapping to another car due to story points. It looks great, though feels as though it lingers a bit too long on vehicles during a takeout at the minute. It certainly looks good. June will always be the biggest month in gaming, simply due to E3. This time we have Nintendo hoping to have success again the same as last year, Microsoft revealing the Scorpio in full, a huge multiplayer event for EA, and a few interesting things from the others.
So let's jump into this in the order I'm most excited for things, which of course is going to be Nintendo first. Nintendo are striking hard and fast this year after their success last year. And they have even more big games to show. With the Switch released and already being a big hit, it’s time to take that into overdrive. Saturday was a real blast. The two main things I was looking forward to have been amazing. Starting with Rebels, it has been confirmed season four will be the last.
This family of actors we've had portraying the Ghost crew were up on stage. Tiya Sircar, Steve Blum, Taylor Grey, Vanessa Marshall, and Freddie Prinze Jr. sat with Dave Filoni to look back on the third season and what is coming in the fourth. There was some great interaction between the cast, and this is possibly the final time they will all be together. It's a special moment then, and one that certainly was felt among them upon Dave's announcement of it being the last season. The first day of streams for Celebration was really an explosive opening. The 40 Years of Star Wars panel had surprises galore, and nowhere was that apparent than George Lucas being introduced on stage by Kathleen Kennedy.
Lucas stayed on stage to interact with the other guests that appeared, and they came in force. Dave Filoni and discussion of how George was a mentor to him throughout The Clone Wars. Hayden Christensen appears at his first Celebration since 2002, and he is joined by Ian McDiarmid, as the two discuss their roles with particular emphasis on Revenge of the Sith and the opera scene. The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis The Wise. This is brought up again during McDiarmid's panel, with quite a bit of time spent on it. Star Wars Celebration is starting off the party right. The 40th anniversary party for the franchise. That shows in the fact the first panel is called '40 Years of Star Wars', and The Star Wars Show pretty much hyped it up as something big.
Hayden Christensen will be returning to Celebration after fifteen years, and a lot of other big names from the franchise will be at the panel. It kicks off the Celebration on Thursday 13th at 11:00 ET [16:00 for those in the UK]. The panel runs for an hour and a half, so this is sure to be something special. Most other morning panels run for an hour and a half, which must show how much content they have to talk about - even if they aren't showing stuff for most of it. It's been just over a week since the event, and I can say it was great to be there. I arrived on the Friday in London, staying just round the corner of the event's venue at the Holiday Inn. I had my best friend Hayden with me, and we were looking forward to such an exciting event the next day. We still had the rest of Friday to get through first.
We took to an exploring of the immediate area, looping around the block opposite to where we were staying. We took in the numerous shops around, and popped into a CEX for a look at the things they had for sale. While we didn't buy anything, we saw Simpsons Hit and Run was on sale for PS2, and I'm pretty sure I spotted most of the seasons for Family Guy. There was also a Power Rangers Ninja Storm DVD, which I found very odd as I've never even seen Power Rangers sold anywhere before. Well, the DVD's at least. It was quite a three day event, is the first thing I'll say. As per last year - in terms of trailers - I did feel the Rebels Season 3 trailer overshadows the Rogue One behind-the-scenes trailer, and despite the fact we never saw it on the livestream, the actual trailer as well.
The animation team has the ability to draw on more material without giving too much away, since just six 20 minute episodes will almost match an entire film. Double that six, and there's enough material to make a trailer for just half a season without giving anything important away. It's the time of year again where Star Wars fans get a big celebration of all things relating to the franchise. Last year was huge, what with the start of new films and a reset to canon making everything new.
And with that we got quite a few new stories, in both comic and novel form. Oh, and the glorious Rebels Season 2 trailer. We got a small peak at a scene from Season 3 on The Star Wars Show, and it is looking as good as ever. So let's take a look what we have this year. |