PixlBit

Like you said I thought this was going to be yet another go at Dead Island or Left 4 Dead and I wasn't interested much. But your preview sounds really interesting. I like the fact you switch characters, will likely die quite a bit, and have a bug-out-bag to manage. Seeing the screens of the character hitting zombies with a melee weapon reminds me too much of Dead Island, and I don't want to play Dead Island. I'm really hoping that evasion and stealth are big parts of this game.

I really don't want it to use a gameplay loop like: "Go into an encounter space, be noticed by zombies, hack and slash to survive, and either die or live." I would rather run away, jump over things, hide under things, scramble, and escape danger in a zombie game. I've killed too many zombies to care anymore. I'd rather use other methods to survive. Instead of programming more ways for me to kill something with a hatchet and dialing in the blood spray effects, they should spend more of their gameplay programming time creating movement mechanics and environment traversal methods that are fresh.

We have all been conditioned by our horror games or zombie games to believe that during an apocalypse we would all magically become masters of melee combat and street tough badasses. We wouldn't, almost all of us would die if we tried that. If a zombie virus infected the majority of the world there would be billions of undead, you can't get all badass and badass your way through all of that. The whole point is survival, not eradication. You can't eradicate billions of zombies and hatchet your way to glory. There's no glory, just survival. They need to let us make a fucking big budget survival game. Left 4 Dead and Dead Island aren't making the cut for me anymore. The idea we were throwing around in Pixltalk that one week was a lot better. The survival genres are bullshit anymore J-Bone lol.

The co-op demo was a sub par Gears of War with the vulgar voice acting from Bulletstorm. I have no reason to play the co-op. It's good the single player experience will still be a thing, that's a great reason to try the game out.

There's some things to worry about, but at least there are still great things to look forward to. Your review of 2 was great, so Visceral hasn't let us down yet.

Great blog, you should definitely keep the series going if you would like to! Your story is interesting. I think it's cool you were raised Buddhist. I've never met many Buddhists in Colorado, so I never get to learn about them and study them. It's sad that the kids bullied you when it came to religion, sad that they bullied you in any fashion. My environment has always consisted of Christians of all different types. My whole family belongs to that particular faith and some of them are really great people, some of them are dangerous. I've found that religions don't make people good or bad, and magical forces don't make people good or bad. People make their own choices and have to be held accountable for how they treat others. Even though I was raised in such an entirely Christian environment I was never attracted to faith of any kind. I learned a few very important virtues from the Christians around me, but I never wanted to become a practitioner of the mythology.

I've grown up to be a non-spiritual person, I worship nothing, I curse at nothing, I beg for nothing, I don't want eternal life, and I don't believe in any deities. I gravitated towards science instead, and when I study science and study the world around us I find things far more mysterious and beautiful than anything I ever learned about in religion. Mythologies and religions are often beautiful to study and learn about though, and I always wanted to learn about Buddhists since they are so hard to come by around here. They always seem so peaceful, patient, open minded, and disciplined. Buddhists seem to exhibit many philosophical traits I appreciate a great deal and would love to see in more human beings.

I always felt alone as a kid because everybody around me just followed in line, never asked questions, and everybody was always told what to think. I always wanted to ask questions, think for myself, learn about science, study people, the planets, and not be told what to think. Teaching people how to think is better than telling people what to think.

Like yourself I found ways to let out my emotions and deal with them on my own terms. I'm glad you found things like martial arts and music to be creative outlets. I know what it's like to fuck up and disappoint my parents, I did that all through high school. I would ditch a ton of classes, run away from home, and make them worry. I never got into fights, I wasn't violent, and I never stole anything from anybody, I wasn't a trouble maker at all in the sense most people think. I never did anything bad or destructive, I would just disappear and go be by myself. When I ditched school do you know where I went? I went to the University library lol.

Whenever I ditched classes and left school I would take a walk through the bird sanctuary (a small forest-park in between my high school and the University) and I would spend a few minutes there in forest just looking around. There were birds and small creatures there wandering around that I would look at. There were trees you could climb, and there were also fallen logs you could just sit on to relax. It wasn't the wilderness because it was actually surrounded by housing and schools, but all the trees and the creek made it very secluded and peaceful. Whenever I sneaked into the sanctuary it was like I was hidden away from the world for a while. Once I was done wandering around the forest I would walk up this huge hill and when you got to the top you were able to walk across a road and the University was right there.

I always looked older than my age so nobody bothered me or told me to leave, I looked like a college freshman. I would spend the whole day in the library reading, drawing on the chalkboards, using the computers, or sitting in the nooks listening to music and looking out the windows. When it was time to go back to school and get picked up for a ride home, I would just make the short trek through the forest and sneak back into the school. My teachers and advisers were always confused as to why I would ditch school so much. I was very intelligent and respectful, but I never showed up for their classes.

Once I left high school and began college a couple years ago I really started learning about who I was, what I wanted to do, what I didn't want to do in life, and it was a much better environment for me. All along the way listening to music, playing guitar, playing video games, and learning about space became hobbies and passions that helped me stay busy and happy.

I did a lot of complaining in the Day 2 video thread, so I'll keep it more positive on this Day 1 thread. Reason being is because, even though all the big 3 conferences were largely disappointing, I still left with a handful of games to be excited about. I loved seeing Halo 4, that's my most anticipated game of the year by far. I've been a Halo fanboy since Halo CE and I don't fuck around, my year is going to revolve around it.

Splinter Cell Blacklist is another game I'm jacked up for, because I'm a SC fanboy as well and I have every single game to date in my collection. I've loved every single one from the original I played on Xbox, to the shooting heavy Conviction on 360. I'm going to go crazy for this game, in fact I'm playing through Conviction again right now just because I'm excited for Splinter Cell in general. I wasn't even expecting a new Splinter Cell at all Mike. I thought Ubi was busy on Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon, but my bad, I forgot how freaking massive Ubisoft is and how many resources they have. Needless to say, I was surprised when Splinter Cell showed up right after Halo in the Microsoft press conference. The second I saw Mr. McSneak creeping up on people and stabbing them in the face I was all-in. This game has my name all over it.

The Sony conference had two things I really loved, Beyond w/ Ellen Page, and The Last of Us. The animation, level design, and AI was fascinating to watch in The Last of Us.

Ubisoft had the best show by far, they killed it. I love Far Cry 3, Splinter Cell, Assassins Creed 3, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some others. All that stuff was great, but Watch Dogs really stole the show. It's the new IP I'm most excited about coming out of E3. Showing a mysterious fresh new game with a polished look was a perfect way to end the presentation.

Awesome video Mike, I love the video content and work you're putting into it. This expo certainly has some great games to take away from it, but it's been a huge bummer on the Big 3 side of things. Chiefly Nintendo. I was counting on Nintendo to bring some magic and inspire me, and I was left bored and uninspired. As you said, it began strong with Shiggy showing Pikmin 3, and Mario, but then it was all downhill and after that there wasn't anything worth remembering. They were just packing it with filler and before I knew it there was a pathetic, poorly animated, poorly sound designed, 5 second fireworks display brought to us via Nintendoland and it was all over.

You could practically feel the crowd's disappointment and deflation. You couldn't have made a more flaccid and lame ending to the conference if you tried. First of all they spent forever trying to explain how to play a Pacman clone. I'm into level design so I understand enough designer-speak to get the gist of what I'm hearing in any given situation, but I honestly lost track of what was happening and glazed over for several minutes when that asshole was doing that Nintendoland demo. On twitter I was watching it and live tweeting my reactions and I said something along the lines of, "I've never been so confused as a designer tried to explain his game to me." Once that was finished there was a lame explosion (the "fireworks display") and then the lights came up. Who does that? Don't people get paid to put these things together? Don't people have to earn degrees to get to such positions and don't they have reputations to establish or defend?

That show sucked so bad at the end and left such a weird taste in people's mouths that I can imagine it will only continue to fuel the jadedness that so many gamers and press have. I don't see how that show was suppose to inspire gamers. They had more than enough time to convince me that the Wii U is the new hotness, and they failed with that particular show. It's as if they live in bubbles and never get out to hear criticisms gaming communities have. One thing that shocked me was after the show Reggie went over to do an interview with some of Spike's people and all Reggie could say was, "I think we did amazing, and I think people are super excited." I love Reggie, but to me that's just bullshit business-talk.

A businessman or PR rep will tell you whatever the fuck they want you to hear as long as they keep it positive, paint the product in a good light, and stear far clear of any creative challenge, intellectual debate, or criticism. I hate that aspect of E3 Mike. The only time any real human beings came on stage to talk about games was Matt Stone and Trey Parker talking about South Park. All the other people from all the companies and their respective conferences were just there to spin a story, possibly rub some fanboy bellies, and pretend that everything is perfectly fine and they can't do any wrong. E3 doesn't have a backbone. It's like it's not a creative outlet or a gathering of gamers anymore. It's just a media blitz and a place where bussiness majors come to spew out the shit they are obligated to say.

The analysis, debates, and discussions all of us regularly have here at Pixlbit are infinitely more productive and honest than the crap going on at E3. And it's as if all these compaines are completely disconnected to us and don't cultivate that same experience we get to have. What's E3 even for anymore? Is it for us?

I'm excited for the new Splinter Cell. I must be the only one who appreciates all the games including Conviction. Mechanically Conviciton is the best of the bunch, and it didn't actually sacrifice ALL the stealth as people claim it did. I for one think Conviction accomplished the kind of design goals Ubi has had since day one. I'm playing through Chaos Theory and then Conviction again for the nth times and I'm planning on doing a feature about the series sometime in the year, but it'll probably be just for my own pleasure. I don't know any other Splinter Cell fans either here or on 1UP. Anybody I talk to just has bad things to say. I'm the last remaining SC fanboy I guess lol.

I have the demo and I fell head over heels in love with this game, and I really want to buy it when I get the chance. I'm interested in design, so your recommendation hit the nail on the head. When I play the demo my brain bursts with ideas and I can't wait to have the full game and have all the time I want to do what I need to do.

The demo only lets you play for like 20 minutes or so and I've become so good at optimizing my time and I've engineered so many crazy things so far. Once I get my hands on the full game I'm going to be off the wall. I love the mechanics, love the gameplay loop, love the music, love the survival horror aspects, and I love building shit, this has my name all over it Travis.

This was my favorite new IP I saw in all the conferences. Ubisoft rocks, and I'm excited for the gameplay they showed here.

^^^ Wowz gyz i can hz cool game but it wasnt 2 gr8 yea, yea. i mean yea totally

~ For real though, Ubisoft stole the show. Microsoft covered their bases and had two things I loved. Sony didn't do any better, but they likewise covered their bases and had two things I loved. Nintendo failed to convince me to buy a Wii U, they blew it with that particular conference (the official one from today, not the pre-E3).

Master Chief and Sam Fisher have my heart as always and anybody who says badly of them will disappear in the night to never be seen again. Watch Dogs, Far Cry 3, Sim City, Last of Us, and Beyond are amazing. Ellen Page is hot. Boom, E3 conference wrap up.

Microsoft didn't drop the ball in my opinion. They covered their bases and focused squarely on 360, what it can do, and they emphasized the ways people actually use it. All the stuff the announced wasn't just wishful thinking. People use their 360's to consume various media more than they do to play games, people want that stuff and Microsoft gave it to them and improved the services, or added new partners. Then they still showed two of my favorite franchises ever, Halo and Splinter Cell so that was enough hardcore gaming to keep me happy for now. They brought out Glass Box or whatever and stole some thunder from Nintendo by showing Microsoft can do the whole "2nd screen gaming" thing too and now the Wii U isn't so unique.

The EA show was cool because I love Crysis. Dead Space Co-op demo was stupid, it was just a wannabe Gears of War with the vulgar voice acting from Bulletstorm.

Sony wasn't anything better than Microsoft. They had two great things to interest me, and that was Beyond with Ellen Page, and The Last of Us. The rest was just fanboy coddling, chest thumping, and business as usual.

Ubisoft by far had the best show of them all. I loved seeing Splinter Cell, Far Cry 3, Assassin's Creed 3, ZombiU, and most of all Watch_Dogs. Everything was good at the show, but Watch_Dogs stole the show and was the perfect way to close out the conference. It looks like an incredible new IP and was my favorite new IP I saw at any of the press conferences.

(UPDATE) Nintendo is the one that dropped the ball, now that we just finished watching the conference. That was a stupid conference, I wasn't convinced to buy a Wii U at all. Last year with their E3 presentation I was purely confused, now this year at their 2012 E3 I was completely uninspired and bored.