I buy Metal Gear Solid games. And I play Metal Gear Solid games. And I understand that there is something to get. I also want to be someone who does get it. But I don't get it. Built into my psychic substrate is a routine that makes me pound my head against things I don't understand; I'll never stop trying. I got closest with 2 and 4.
People often talk about "winning" E3, and there are generally considered to be three platforms in the running, but if you're going title for title it doesn't seem super hard. Everything Ubisoft showed is something I want to own.
Well, except for The Club. They will have to show me more The Club. Driveclub and The Club. Don't really know about these. Those new Test Drive games were cool. Are they like those? Anyway. Back to the top:
Aisha Tyler sets the tone for these things, and fucks with people when they come up to show off their shit, which dilutes a lost of the crust that clings to such orchestrated events. She talks to people like they're people, in the language they would use - in the language they are using themselves when shown these things. If you teleprompt her with some cheeseball transition, you're going to hear about it. She is Vitamin T, and every presentation save this one is woefully malnourished.
Assassin's Creed: Unity is better for breaking with old platforms - the gulf between existing systems and the new shit, especially on the PS4, was brutal. When I think about being on the eave of a building with my brother Gorbiriel, looking down upon the doomed, it ranks high. And now, they're going to give me a game that is largely about that. Far Cry 4, also: I want (you'll see this word again) to handle the environmental gameplay with a friend - to tick those open world boxes, and then get back to linear campaign stuff. Or, never get back. I'm fine with either one.
The Division is still the takeaway. I would have thought that I was all apocalypsed out, but they laid the foundation right. It's not this pop nihilism that seems to give everybody a hard dick, now - real, or metaphorical - it's not the omnipresent Night that we apparently long to worship. It's aspirational and resilient in a way that I'm hungry for. It's an Ur-Game, a product of the moment, the endpoint of many distinct genres and styles of play. Gimme.
The surprise reveal at the end - the return of Rainbow Six, with the strategic trappings of the ancient PC games - more or less sealed the deal. Watching the video, I knew which of my friends would be doing which roles instinctively. I loved the direction of Patriots, and I'm sad to see it go - it wanted to talk about the thick, grey mass of ambiguity when you make moral decisions at scale. I was ready to go there, but I will go here with a glad heart. They aren't talking about "the campaign" or "the co-op," but the Siege suffix makes me think they might focus on a multiplayer game, which I think we're going to see a lot of this generation. Garden Warfare carved out a nice, forty dollar platform to grow on and I consider that money well spent. I knew that I wanted a new R6, wanted to type "R6" again with a flourish, first with the left hand and then the right. But until I saw it fill a screen on Monday I didn't know my need for it was essentially a hole in my chest. (CW)TB out.
