It was the high-pitched, puppy-like whine emitted from the creature in The Last Guardian which tugged at my heart strings. Or as the internet would say, it was what caused The Feels. The moment reminded me of a pet dog I once owned. He was an innocent and loving border collie, energetic and incredibly loyal. Seeing the protagonist interact with the giant furry creature in a gameplay video shown at E3 made me think of him--something I hadn't done in a long time.
The footage shown was an extended version of the gameplay revealed during Sony's E3 2015 conference, and started inside the ruins of the temple. There, the boy found the large guardian in a spacious room. The boy greeted the creature by petting it for a good few seconds; unnecessary, but a nice way to highlight the nature of their relationship.
The charm of the game was largely because of how the guardian moved and sounded. The manner in which its ears twitched, how it squeaked with disdain upon having its feathers pulled out, and its puppy dog whine when it couldn't reach food. The boy would need the help of his furry friend to make it through the temple, and the barrels of food scattered around the next room over served as great motivation. The boy picked up a barrel with both hands and tossed it at the guardian, who responded like how most pets do when thrown a treat: by catching it deftly in its mouth. The action was simple, but uncannily familiar to look at for someone who has once done the same with a real life canine companion.
There's seemingly no end to the familiar mannerisms which have been captured in The Last Guardian; the twitch and flick of the guardian's ears, how it coiled back on its hind legs to prepare for a jump, the way it shuffled around when trying to find its feet on unsteady ground. With the help of more treat-filled barrels, the boy was able to climb to the next room and pull a lever to open a door which the guardian could then walk through. From there, the pair moved on to the outside section of the ruins shown previously.
The relationship depicted between the boy and the guardian is one that transcends words; the two don't converse and no dialogue is shared, but it elicits a sense of connection. As someone who frequently enjoys watching puppy videos, I can't wait to see more of The Last Guardian when it's finally released for
Whispers of Oblivion is a special three-mission series that has been created to bridge the storyline between Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.
Check out this E3 2015 trailer for Eternal Conflict, the newest update to Heroes of the Storm, which reveals new Heroes King Leoric and the Monk from the Diablo franchise.
There was a time when anyone could pick up a pad and chase high-scores in a skating game. And then the Tony Hawk titles withered away, the
Levels in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 can be played with up to 20 other people in a freeskate mode where everyone just hangs out and tricks together. Once you’ve gathered friends, you can queue up to do missions together, challenge everyone in the session to a high-score challenge chases.
Pro Skater 5’s online mode is designed to serve as a player lobby, without the pressure of having to find something to do, and the inconvenience of sitting through menus to do it. It should feel like a real skate park, where friends can compete, teach or learn, and generally just chill out with each other.
Finally, Robomodo has introduced the ability to create skate parks, with on-the-fly editing and remixing. As you character jumps into the air, you can slide into the creation mode and place a grind or a ramp in the perfect place. All of your creations can then be shared online for others to enjoy.
There’s a classic feel to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 that--thanks in large part to the soundtrack--ignited a feeling of nostalgia for the originals and then immediately satiated it. As as unskilled Tony Hawk player, I’m excited to see the series return, and glad to see that it’s sticking so close to its roots.
As a blog post explains, "In Whispers of Oblivion, players will join Zeratul for the first time since Wings of Liberty to unravel the final piece of the Xel'naga prophecy."
More details will be shared in July.
Additionally, Blizzard announced that the expansion is getting another beta test in July. Keep an eye on GameSpot for more news about the beta, the prologue, and the expansion as it becomes available.
"Please play on PlayStation 4," he said in response to a question about what Xbox players can expect.
Taro and Saito explained that the new Nier project is more focused on creating an original story within the game world, and won't follow the narrative of the original. However, we can expect several Nier characters to make cameos. There will be these kind of connections, but Taro emphasized that newcomers won't feel alienated if they come to the new game without playing the original. Returning players, however, will enjoy a lot of nods and easter eggs from its predecessor.
Another feature that made Nier unique was how it treated player choice at the end of it the game and incentivized repeat playthroughs. There are five possible endings in Nier, all of which encourage you to go back into the game and try your hand at saving things again.
In one particular ending, you're asked to either sacrifice yourself to save someone or let them die. If you sacrifice yourself, the game wipes your save file--effectively deleting all traces of your adventure. To add insult to injury, it won't let you use the same file name you did on your previous playthrough, as if the game itself was telling you to move on. It's a bold move for a game, one that unfortunately (fortunately?) won't be repeated.
"We are going to maintain that multiple playthrough idea for the new project, but in terms of the save file deletion thing, we probably won't do it, since we did it in the original one and want to do new things," Taro explained. "But we will have multiple playthroughs involved. But you know... we're still in early phases of development. Maybe we will delete you save files."
The original Nier's level design was a mash of different genres; Players spent most of the time controlling Nier as you would in a typical third-person action game, but for select fights, the camera would swing up to a top-down perspective. On other occasions, it would switch to a side-on platformer, with some sequences more closely following conventions of shoot-em-up. This worked for some players, but not all, but the constant switching ensured that gameplay rarely got stale. The new game likely won't follow this pattern, however.
"Members of the media told me the original Nier is like a puppy someone threw out."
director Yoko Taro
The new Nier will, however, retain the tone of the original game and the Drakengard series. It will keep its mature subject matter and approach to dialogue and presentation, not shying away from hyper-violence and sexualization.
"Drakengard was my first game as director, and we were actually told a lot by our advisory board to do retakes and make changes and honestly, I said, screw this, I'm not making another one," Taro said.
"I thought, with Nier, I'm going to make a normal game. That's what I tried to make, a normal game, though people think it's very dark and somber. But for me, that's normal."
He added: "The way I look at original Nier is like your mom's home cooking: it may not be the best, but it's okay, you're comfortable with it. Members of the media told me the original Nier is like a puppy someone threw out. It's cute in a way, but there's something wrong in a sense, and you can't help but love it even though there's something missing and you can't put your finger on it.
"But now we're working with Platinum games, and with Yoshida and Okabe, and we feel we have these great ingredients now. Is it going to be too perfect? We have all these great chefs, if you will, working together, and now, is it going to be missing that thing that made it so endearing to our fans? But after thinking about it, we think, we're just going to try it and see how it goes."
Whispers of Oblivion is a special three-mission series that has been created to bridge the storyline between Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.
Join Tim and Greg as they chat with skating pro legend Tony Hawk about the new Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 on the Kinda Funny stage.
Check out this E3 2015 trailer for Eternal Conflict, the newest update to Heroes of the Storm, which reveals new Heroes King Leoric and the Monk from the Diablo franchise.
Join Collin and Greg as they chat with Peter Moore about E3 2015 and what EA is up to on day 1 of the Kinda Funny Stage show.
Check out the E3 2015 Portal trailer.
Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann stops by the Kinda Funny Stage to try & give a HoloLens preview while eating a habanero pepper.
We saw a demo of Deus Ex, and it’s basically Deus Ex with more stuff. That’s not a bad thing. Hear Rob and Kevin share their thoughts from E3 2015.
Ghost games joins Lucy on the GameSpot stage to talk about the fast cars and bad attitudes of Need for Speed.
Check out the E3 2015 Trailer for Take On Mars.
