The iLL Panel: E3 2014 Discussion and Views

The iLL Panel is a series where the iLL Gaming staff pick their brains over topics related to the game industry. Given the nature of our staff it can end up being either a mosh pit of fanboy nerdgasms or a bitter fight usually accompanied with death threats and all-out war (ok, maybe we’re not that extreme).

To kick off things, we discuss the biggest games marketing event of the year, E3. Taking part in this iLL Panel are Sahil, Tathagata, Anikait and Chirantan, with a guest appearance by Ajay. Sahil was the only one of us who was in the US at E3 and got to experience many things first hand.

The panel starts hesitantly with everyone unsure of what to discuss first. Topics like VR fly around and Sahil begins to list some of the games he played at E3, turning the other panellists green with envy. Ajay pops in to say hello, but then his mobile net gives up on him.

“WELCOME TO THE WESTERN REPRESENTATION OF THE HIMALAYAS”

Then suddenly it happens, a proper discussion topic, Far Cry 4. Sahil mentions playing it and asking the developers about the unusual presence of elephants in the Himalayas, who respond by calling them a necessity of the open world sandbox. Chirantan nit-picks on the messed up Devanagari fonts in the game trailer. Sahil points out other features like grappling up mountains, rope climbing, and dynamic convoys, parachutes and wing suits. The soundtrack is also Indian with instruments like the sitar playing. Tathagata points out the anomaly of having rickshaws in the mountains while Chirantan wonders if the game has an altitude sickness mechanic which promptly reminds Tathagata of the malaria in Far Cry 2. By now Anikait is starting to get bored with the excited gushing of the other three and wants a change of topic. But there’s still some more to be said about guns for hire, fortress takedowns and Far Cry 4 being closer to Far Cry 2, rather than 3. It finally ends with Chirantan predicting Ubisoft’s trailers will probably bore us before we even play the game.

ZE CRU

Moving on, Sahil mentions The Crew and adds in the pun CARPG (a car RPG), causing the others to cringe. Anikait is disappointed with Sahil for not playing Microsoft’s and EA’s games but Sahil explains it away with an excuse of really long queues. Tathagata hopes Ubisoft have worked hard on their servers for when they launch The Crew, otherwise the whole project could crash and burn. Chirantan asks about the game’s map which Sahil confirms to be a scaled down version of the USA where you start in the Midwest, progress to the East coast and end up in Los Angeles towards the end. There seem to be no micro transactions and console exclusive content as yet for The Crew. The game teams you up with 7 others who form your crew and gives you objectives. Your crew can change every time you go online for a play session though. There are five categories of cars called specs with visual and performance customization for all. The game seems a mix of simulation and arcade racing though it leans more towards the simulation side. At this point, the discussion is becoming more of a question answer session, with Sahil getting bombarded with questions about his E3 experiences.

GET OVER HERE!!

Mortal Kombat X comes up next, with Sahil stating that “it was INSANE!” There were 7 playable heroes in the demo as well as 3 locations. The game seems accessible to new players to the franchise with lots of stuff from the previous game present. Each character has 3 variations of fighting to choose from, but there are no opening cut scenes as in Injustice: Gods Among Us.

OF BATMOBILES AND ENVIRONMENTAL TAKEDOWNS

After murmurs of the new PGA/Battlefield game and Microsoft showing possible desperation by announcing Halo Master Chief Collection, the panel settles on Batman: Arkham Knight. Sahil believes it’s not repetitive and boring (like he was expecting it to be) thanks to new additions and refinements to the Batman formula. Flying has been considerably improved and the Batmobile has been incorporated into the gameplay. The Batmobile has a Pursuit and a Battle mode and it can be remote controlled. Batman can even perform Batmobile assisted takedowns. With Scarecrow set to be the main antagonist, Batman has refined his combat moves and can make use of the environment to perform Takedowns. There are also Fear takedowns, which allow for upto three goons to be taken down at once. The new segmented suit improves Batman’s agility and makes combat faster.

PAYDAY: THE EA EDITION

Cops and Robbers dominated the next part of the discussion with Anikait bringing up Battlefield: Hardline. The others promptly dismissed it as a wannabe Payday that’s trying too hard to be different, just like its publisher EA. Amidst this droll conversation, Rainbow Six: Siege drops in with a bang. The tactical combat is amongst the finest in any game. The game reminded Chirantan a bit of Counter Strike: Global Offensive, with its 5v5 portrait display in the HUD, but the gameplay style differs significantly.

AUGMENTED REALITY

Sahil steers the discussion towards VR (again) having tried both Sony’s Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift. It was a very physical experience that relied a lot on muscle memory to use the controller properly, though the tech demo Street Luge required no controllers. You can feel some motion sickness with these VR headsets though. They are quite heavy with Project Morpheus seeming more comfortable of the two. Seems VR is one of the emerging trends of the gaming industry that’s still taking its baby steps.

THE REST

The discussion next headed to games that interested the iLL staff most with names being thrown about like Dying Light, Bloodborne, Uncharted, Hellraid, Blood Bowl2, No Man’s Sky, Abzu, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments, Styx: Master of Shadows, Rise of the Tomb Raider,The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Evil Within, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Evolve and Destiny. We’ll take talking about most of these days in separate posts. Anikait decided to show his Xbox fanboy colours by listing the whole Microsoft Press Conference list. Chirantan hoped that Ubisoft might buck the trend and launch the PC version of the new Assassin’s Creed on the same day as the consoles.

The discussion seemed to be dying out with no consensus over the topic with probables coming up like worst conference (EA bored us all), Nintendo, Witcher 3, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Star Wars: Battlefront, Metal Gear Solid, Bloodborne, Scalebound and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Sahil mentioned he stayed away from AAA on his E3 trip, trying out more of the indie stuff which impressed him. Devolver Digital’s Talos Principle and Titan souls were both quite interesting though India might see them only on Steam or through bundles.

On that note the panel winds up with real life calling out to the panellists. Until next time. iLL out.