Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Not-E3 2024 Schedule and Hopes

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 052024
 

It’s that time of year again – the time of year when, even if E3 isn’t actually a thing anymore, everyone pretends it is anyway and all the conferences and showcases happen at once. Technically it’s already started; we had two showcases last week and two indie showcases yesterday.

But the real “Not-E3” period will run over the next few days, so let’s take a look at what’s lined up for us this year.

Not-E3 2024 Schedule

June 6
Guerrilla Collective 2024 – 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET

June 7
Summer Game Fest 2024 – 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET
Devolver Direct 2024 – 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET

June 8
Wholesome Direct 2024 – 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET
Future Games Show: Summer Showcase 2024 – 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET

June 9
Xbox Games Showcase 2024 – 10 AM ET / 1 PM PT
PC Gaming Show 2024 – 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET

June 10
Ubisoft Forward 2024 – 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET

There will also be a Nintendo Direct sometime this month, as they confirmed a June Direct, but its specific date hasn’t been revealed yet. If they announce it soon and it fits into the “Not-E3” period, I’ll add it to the list. (E3 tradition would suggest June 11, but who knows?) There are also some smaller presentations, which I’ll cover any highlights from in a miscellaneous section at the end.

Not-E3 2024 Hopes

Capcom might not have their own showcase this year, but they’ll have announcements during the Summer Game Fest presentation, and I’m on my hands and knees begging for a new Ace Attorney game. It’s been so long! At least it feels like we got a new game in 2021, since The Great Ace Attorney hadn’t been localized before, but as for an actual all-new release, it’s been 7 years.

But the series is selling like crazy, the release of the Apollo Justice Trilogy has bridged the gap for a new audience to play Ace Attorney 7, and we are long overdue for an announcement. I’d be more optimistic if Capcom was having its own showcase, but I’ve still got my hopes pinned on Ace Attorney.

Now, let’s take a look back and see which of my “pipe dream” hopes are still left standing. Since last year, we’ve knocked another one off the list – a Persona 3 remake. That leaves us with:

  • Ace Attorney Investigations 2 localization
  • Tales of Symphonia prequel
  • Xenosaga HD
  • A classic-style Paper Mario (a new one, so I’m not counting the Thousand-Year Door remake)
  • World of Final Fantasy 2
  • Mother 3 localization
  • Untranslated Tales games
  • Like a Dragon Kenzan and Kurohyo

And I’m going to add one more, a Xenoblade Chronicles X remaster. I doubt we’ll ever get an X sequel if the original remains a Wii U exclusive, so I’m tossing that hope into the ring!

What games are you hoping to see at this year’s Not-E3 2024 showcases? And do you think we’ll get an Ace Attorney announcement, or will Van Zieks be toasting my future career in the circus?

Let’s Talk About the State of Play and Marvelous Game Showcase

 Video games  1 Response »
Jun 032024
 

Why is the open world dress-up gacha(?) game so pretty??

Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024 is at an end, and the contest winners have been notified! Thank you for participating!

It’s almost Not-E3 season, and while we were still talking about mystery games, May 30 saw a State of Play, a showcase from Marvelous, and a new Silent Hill presentation.

Frustratingly, the State of Play and Marvelous Game Showcase were at the exact same time, so I did what any reasonable person would do and opened them in two separate tabs to watch them simultaneously.

The State of Play made this easy at first, since they went on for over 10 minutes about a multiplayer shooter game called Concord that I couldn’t care less about, which gave me plenty of time to start with Marvelous’s show!

Marvelous began with a look at a game they’d announced last year called Project Magia, now revealed with the official title Farmagia. I’d guess this means it has farming elements, but I don’t actually know, because they showed the opening video and introduced the characters without saying anything about gameplay. So while Farmagia looks nice enough, I don’t even know what sort of game it is.

Then they showed the next Story of Seasons game and emphasized the improved graphics. I’ve seen a lot of fans criticizing their choice to focus on that aspect, but all I can say is that it’s really pretty. I especially like the fireworks.

They moved on to talk about mobile and arcade games, which worked out well for me since the State of Play had finally gotten past Concord.

…to announce that God of War Ragnarok is coming to PC, but then after that it was time for a new announcement, a new Dynasty Warriors game called Dynasty Warriors: Origins.

I’ve never played Dynasty Warriors, but it’s one of those series I have a mild passing interest in.

The next trailer was for Infinity Nikki, and I’ve never been more impressed and tempted by a game I might not enjoy at all. Just look at it! It’s gorgeous!

Infinity Nikki is an “open world dress-up game” in which you use costumes to get different skills that let you traverse the world and solve puzzles and stuff. That sounds so neat it’s almost enough to make me look past my open world aversion, but it’s actually the 5th game in a series and the others were gacha games, so there’s a good chance this one will be as well. Their information about signing up for the PS5 beta tests specifies that the beta test won’t have in-app purchases, so that likely means the full game will.

The next game in the State of Play was an action RPG called Ballad of Antara, which looks pretty cool. It’s apparently free-to-play, though, which also has me wondering if it will involve gacha or some other monetization scheme.

They moved on from there to VR games and a Marvel game I don’t care about, so it was back to the Marvelous Game Showcase for me! Marvelous showed some indie games, including the cute-looking Moonlight Peaks, a life sim / farming game where you play a vampire.

The State of Play went on to open world action RPG Where Winds Meet, the Until Dawn remake, and Path of Exile while Marvelous talked about Rune Factory, so I stayed with Marvelous to watch the new footage from the upcoming Rune Factory spin-off, Rune Factory: Project Dragon.

Now I could have sworn I blogged about this when it was announced, but I must be misremembering. Anyway, this new Rune Factory spin-off looks beautiful to me. Apparently you use the power of dance to connect with the Earth instead of the power of farming, so that’s an interesting change. I’m pretty excited to learn more about this one.

Marvelous closed its showcase with a new teaser for the upcoming Daemon x Machina sequel, Titanic Scion.

Next, from the State of Play, we got a new trailer for the Silent Hill 2 remake, as well as a release date – October 8. The Silent Hill Transmission live stream after the State of Play largely focused on Silent Hill 2 as well, with a lengthier gameplay video, so I’ll discuss both at once.

Discourse has gone absolutely crazy, with what appears to be people who haven’t even played the original getting on it (if you’re going to post comparison shots, at least make sure you get the right game), so I’ll just summarize my impressions by saying I think Angela looks fine, the gameplay has me cautiously optimistic, and I’m concerned about Maria’s redesign. Maria looking so different has me a little nervous about whether or not they grasped her role in the story. Also, I’m glad they improved James’s face from the first model we saw.

The State of Play didn’t end with Silent Hill, however, as they next showed off the upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds. I’ve never gotten into the Monster Hunter series, so I’m not especially interested in that one.

But they closed with a game that looks right up my alley! I know they’ve had a few shorter Astro Bot games, but now they’re making a full-length 3D platformer just called Astro Bot, and it looks great!

So while the events might not have been stacked with must-play games for me, there were still some great ones in there. Which games from the State of Play and Marvelous Game Showcase stood out to you the most?

Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy

 Celebrating All Things Mysterious, Reviews, Video games  6 Responses »  Tagged with: , , , , ,
May 312024
 

It’s the final day of Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024 (and your last chance to participate in the contest).

Last year, we closed out the month by talking about Ace Attorney Investigations 2, so why not end the event with Ace Attorney again?

Earlier this year, Capcom finally brought Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, and Spirit of Justice (the 4th, 5th, and 6th mainline games) to modern platforms as the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy, which even got a physical release for the Switch in North America. Since Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice were digital-only here before, it’s great to finally have them in physical form.

While I ultimately decided against playing through all three games again, I did spend some time with the Apollo Justice Trilogy nevertheless.

I love that these newer collections include concept art and similar bonuses. Looking through the concept art is always fun, especially when you get to see earlier character designs.

It also includes an extensive soundtrack selection (all the songs from the three games, minus the ones that only play for a few seconds, plus some additional tracks as well), and you can set a song to play in the background while you look through other parts of the gallery.

Then there’s the Animation Studio, which might be the best bonus feature I’ve ever seen.

The Animation Studio lets you pick any background, character, pose/animation, and voice clip (ex. “Objection!”) to create your own scenes. It’s restricted based on game, so no taking a character exclusive to one game and putting them in a background from a different game, but it still has a ton of options. One annoying part is that some poses/animations are exclusive to the courtroom, so if you select that option while on a different background, it automatically changes to the courtroom. I’d have preferred it if courtroom-specific options only showed up on the list while you had a courtroom background set, or if it asked first.

Still, after a bit of fiddling, I managed to make some fun what-if scenes with Blackquill, since he’s one of my favorite prosecutors. I like to think he’s there to see the bird.

…and a scene with my least favorite prosecutor, to imagine what could have been (out-of-court encounters with Nahyuta might have done wonders for him).

Playing around with the Animation Studio makes me wish The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles had this feature, because I’d go crazy if I could make my own Great Ace Attorney scenes.

Anyway, another nice feature added to the Apollo Justice Trilogy is that you can not only select which game to play, but even a specific section of a specific case. I revisited some of my favorite moments from the trilogy this way, and it reminded me just how much I love this series.

The Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is a fantastic collection of the later three Ace Attorney games, with some really nice bonus features, and a perfect collection to end Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024 with. So let me know your thoughts on the Apollo Justice Trilogy, and join me in hoping that this is the year a new Ace Attorney game will finally be announced!

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