EDIT: So I kind of hurriedly made this post in the wee hours of the morning , and forgot to give context as to what I’m talking about and why I’m talking about it.
This weekend marked the start of electronic gaming’s big E3 event. It’s where game producers and developers get together to showcase their biggest and best offerings for the upcoming year, with the announcements of new games, features, and tech/consoles yet to be released. One of my hobbies is…well playing video games. It seems like that’s one of the bigger hobbies for really anyone to have, and I’m not different in that regard. And when I discovered what E3 was way back in high school, I’ve always made it a mission to watch it, and watch it live if I could. I blame G4 mainly. That channel was on 24/7 at my house when I was on summer break during high school, and it covered everything it could during E3. So, I immersed myself with it, watched all the coverage on new games, the trailers…the works.
Nothing has changed in the last 15 years for me. I still get excited about this stuff, and it’s for the same reasons too I’m sure: new unique games that look almost too real to be a video game, stories and characters that transport the player to far off lands to be part of a quest that…you get it. And getting into storytelling like I have over the past 8 years or so, has really opened my eyes to how much work and thought is put into creating these worlds and characters. Everything has to be so thought out, and so in depth that it’s just as impressive, if not more so, when games “get it right”. When the story and gameplay converge into an experience that truly transports you to another place. Few games have really done that for me. God of War 1 – 3, Uncharted 2 and 3, Assassins Creed 2/Brotherhood/Revelations/Black Flag, Kingdom Hearts 1&2…admittedly I’m a PlayStation homer, so I’m pretty one sided in terms of gaming experience. But those games were ones that told a story that fascinated me, and whose controls and gameplay were comfortable and not clunky or repetitive (I get the KH and GoW series’ battle system was a bit button mashy, but for what it was trying to do, it worked), and overall just kicked ass. I know “kick ass” isn’t a measuring standard, but those games really did just kick ass. I’m sure there are a few more games that I’ve played in my lifetime that did their jobs, but these are the ones that stick out to me, because of how good they were and how much I connected with them.
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So here are some thoughts on today’s E3 happenings and my first official podcast. It’s a bit scatter brained (because it’s 2:00 in the morning and I’m still processing everything), but I wanted to give a fresh take on all of things I saw in the Microsoft and Bethesda press conferences today (yesterday).
This is also my first podcast…like ever. So, I’m also sure that over time I’ll understand how to organize better and form my thoughts into more understandable sentences. But, it was fun wasting an hour talking about video games. I could have been sleeping instead, but overall it was fun.
There will be a longer post on it in writing, probably coming on Tuesday, but this is just a stream of consciousness, fresh take thing.
ENJOY!
Life and it's Musings 