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Captain Ricardo’s a bit of a sleep talker, it seems!

I saw Pixar’s Inside Out tonight and it was GREAT! I’m going to just encourage everyone to go see it, for certainly. In fact, I only have one gripe about it! SPOILERS When the Long Term Memory workers send the ‘bubble gum song’ memory orb up to the control room, why doesn’t Joy send the Core memory orbs up to the control room using the same method? I suppose maybe she didn’t trust letting them out of her sight, but it did seem like a rather obvious solution. END SPOILERS

AND WAIT I HAVEN”T TALKED ABOUT VIDEO GAMES!! How ’bout that E3? This year, I think Sony wins. I’m admittedly only so-so about a Final Fantasy 7 remake, since I never played the original (never had a psx!) and I’m sure the remake is two or three years away, if not more with Tetsuya Nomura at the helm. Still, it’s one of those fabled announcements that people had been waiting so long for that it had become a gag. It’s kind of surreal to have it actually happen.

And then there’s Shenmue 3, which has me PUMPED despite the fact that the Kickstarter video showed very underwhelming visuals, and despite the fact that Yu Suzuki is asking for a mere $2 million for a game that is clearly going to require fifteen times that much money if it wants to live up to the hype. Sony says it’s going to help with development (one would assume in the financial sense if nothing else), so I’m confident it’ll deliver, although I suspect we won’t get the game for three years, at the least (much like FF7 Remake). I never played either Shenmue game, but I did watch playthroughs on Youtube and Twitch. I’ve been following Gametrailers.com‘s Twitch streams of the Shenmue series, and I think Micheal Huber’s impossible hype for the franchise has rubbed off on me something fierce. Hopefully we can get a Shenmue 1&2 HD release in the meantime so I can finally play this beautiful martial arts epic for myself. EDIT: The idea that Sony is funding the creation of Shenmue 3 isn’t quite true. This video explains why the Kickstarter still needs as much help as it can get!

And then there’s THE LAST GUARDIAN. Guys, I dunno about you, but I’ve played through Ico at least five times, and Shadow of the Colossus more times than I can remember. I used to just roam around in that game for hours looking for any hidden secrets in every possible nook and cranny. The only other game that I ever felt that enthralled with was Ocarina of Time. The Last Guardian is a game I’m ready to get lost in, and I have total faith it will deliver, especially after seeing the new demo trailer. Geez, I hope the griffin doesn’t die at the end ! (Who am I kidding, it’s a goner, I’ll cry.)

I was somewhat disappointed that two of my favorite long dormant franchises, Onimusha and Prince of Persia, didn’t make an appearance, but there’s always next year! I was also pretty disappointed at the lack of a new Metroid game announcement. Nintendo’s weird Metroid Prime Federation Force felt like an unintentional troll on par with Sony’s FF7 PS4 port from last year! Here’s a list of some of the other games I’m hyped about!: Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Adrift, ABZU, Uncharted 4, Star Wars Battlefront, Disney Infinity 3.0, Star Fox Zero. I’m sure there are others I can’t think of at the moment… As always, I’ll probably only play about 1/5th of all the games I’m interested in, if that! Curse you, free time! Why do you continually shrink?

Published on June 21, 2015 by Alex Kolesar

Ben Johnston

Game series that I love that got itself a fancy trailer for E3: Fire Emblem, specifically, Fire Emblem: Fates. Great series, turn-based Tactical RPG. The stories for it are always top-notch with good game play mechanics and soundtracks. Drops early next year for the 3DS. Looks to be really good, possibly one of the best in the series.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  I sunk 240 hours into Fire Emblem Awakening! I am unbelievably hyped for Fates! I love that there are two separate storylines based on the allegiances you make at the beginning of the game, and I love that it’s basically knights vs samurai! Which reminds me about For Honor, that looks like a rad game, too.
  - Ben Johnston
    
    There’s also supposed to be a third DLC route where you can choose to be with neither region and do your own thing!
IDPounder

Ricardo may be oblivious, but I see he’s keeping to the time-honored tradition of a captain sleeping on his most valuable cargo. No matter how trustworthy your crew might be, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  A time honored tradition, is it? Perhaps for paranoid captains!
Hfar

Fallout4Fallout4Fallout4Fallout4!!!

*ahem* Yes, I know Fallout 4 was officially announced before E3, but it was still covered at the expo and I am still hyped as f***.
- KungFuKlobber
  
  Just Cause 3!
  - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
    
    I have Just Cause 2 on PC, but I’ve never played it! It looks fun, but also kind of mindless, I think a prefer a more focused game experience, which may be why I’m not that hyped for it. I suspect I’ll watch plenty of great youtube videos of it when it comes out, though.
    - Brandenfascher
      
      JC2’s story is very simple. For the most part, it is “blow up all the island dictator’s stuff up to get more missions to blow up more stuff”. It really is great to play for a short while if you really just need to… blow stuff up. And, well, the vehicles can be fun to drive/fly too.
  - Hfar
    
    Yeah, I’ll probably get that game when it comes out too.
    
    Why? Just ’cause! Because it looks frickin’ amazing and sometimes I just want some brainless fun damnit!
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  Fallout 4 looks INCREDIBLE, what crazy character customization! But I’ll probably never play it. I’m not super into post apocalypse games, unless they’re way out there like Horizon Zero Dawn or Enslaved. I’m also a little intimidated by the amount of game mechanics at work in Fallout 4, seems like a steep learning curve. I never played a Fallout game before, and 3 looked so drab, visually, so I’m glad to see 4 is much more colorful. I can definitely understand the appeal of the games, I’m just generally wary of console games that look like they’ll take over 100 hours to complete due to lack of free time! I really want to dive into the Witcher games, but I probably never will for the same reason.
  - Hfar
    
    Fair enough. All of the Fallout games that I’ve played do indeed take a lot of time to get through (unless you’re doing a two hour speed run like some people attempt) and Fallout 3 did have a pretty drab color pallet.
    
    But what I love about the Fallout games (at least 3 and New Vegas anyway) is that they’re oddly uplifting for post apocalypse games. The end of the world has come and gone, but humanity continues to survive and rebuild. Often in very interesting ways, which makes the game world a joy to simply explore.
- Mike
  
  I know! I’ve played all the Fallout Series since I had to sneak over to my buddy’s place to play the first one (when I was WAY to young to be playing a game like it), and I’ve routinely enjoyed every one since.
  - Hfar
    
    I got the first Fallout on GoG awhile back, but I still haven’t gotten around to finishing the first level. It plays SO differently from 3 and New Vegas! The series really changed after development shifted from Black Isle Studios to Bethesda.
Astralfury

He must be having a nightmare if twice the price he is being offered isnt enough.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  Clearly he just doesn’t like the buyer.
  - Astralfury
    
    Oh come on, from what you have shown of him so far I figure the only kind of customer he wouldn’t sell to for twice the price is the kind he thinks he can get thrice out of :p
    - Xinef
      
      Why do I have this strange feeling, that once the Wataro actually offer money to Rrrrrricardo for his wares, he’s going to say something along the lines:
      “What is this?!? This ain’t money! Give me some REAL money!”
      (pun intended)
      - jwkovell
        
        This pundit fully supports the intentional use of said pun.
      - Neska
        
        Well, gold is gold . . .
      - Xinef
        
        … unless their bank system already evolved into the stage, where money is a purely virtual concept. (by the way, the next stage is where the economy falls apart because of that, and bullets become the new currency)
      - Neska
        
        At this point we seem to be dealing with Feudal Japan and contemporary Europeans, so while the coins may be different shapes gold is still gold.
Magus

Regarding that FF7 remake, for years wasn’t really interested in one because it would use up resources that could be used for a new game. But the direction the FF series has gone in lately hasn’t really done it for me, so at this point I’m all in for remakes of the classics. So long as they’re legitimate remakes rather than just cheap ports with higher resolution and nothing else new.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  Certainly the Fabula Nova Crystalis games were mess narratively. The characters were dumb and inarticulate, the plots were contrived, vague, and poorly paced, and we were subjected to them for the entire life cycle of the PS3!! I only ever played FF13, and although I would say it was an underwhelming experience, if nothing else, it is visually incredible and the soundtrack IS AMAZING. In fact, all three of the FF13 games have amazing soundtracks. Similarly, the soundtracks are the best thing about the Star Wars prequels. I loves me a good soundtrack.
  
  But I honestly don’t know if FF7’s plot is all that great. Like I said, I never played the game, but I think I’ve assimilated enough of the plot through watching videos and living neck deep in video game culture to say that it doesn’t seem to make much sense. But, then again, it could just be very complex and I’m not seeing the full picture.
  - Flaming Squirrel
    
    I actually didn’t hate XIII. It wasn’t amazing, but I enjoyed the story and grew to like most of the characters- Snow and Sazh especially. I thought XIII -2 was much better, especially because Caius was a superior villain to Barthandelus. I just started Lightning Returns a couple weeks ago but haven’t gotten very far in it, but I can definitely see its losing steam. What bugs me is that it think 2 and LR would have been much better if they had been their own games instead of being shoehorned into the XIII timeline. 2 had very little to do with the original, and Lightning Returns even less.
    - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
      
      Yeah, I didn’t hate 13, I was just underwhelmed. I did like Fang, although she wasn’t given much to do. I didn’t bother with the sequels, but I believe they were partly made because Squeenix built the game engine and had all these game assets that they could still turn a profit on. I think that’s more why the sequels were, in fact, sequels, and not entirely new worlds and characters. From what I know of the plots of FF13-2 and LR, it did seem as though their connection to the first game was tenuous!
      - Flaming Squirrel
        
        To be fair, I think 2 and LR mi.ght be better experienced without 1 at all. They have more in common with each other than they do with the original and, like I said, are both better games overall
    - Yilderim
      
      Honestly, LR did some things really right, and really wrong.
      
      The boss fights were awesome, because it felt like a duel of equals. Both of you are effectively massive tanks with tons of HP instead of the usual “Scary boss puts you down to low health with flashy attack, then you heal to full with heal3” stuff*, and you have to carefully block attacks while chaining your own together, slowly winning the war of attrition as the enemy brings out more and more attacks to stop you.
      
      The normal fights were terrible, because no one likes getting hit by offscreen attacks.
      
      Saving people was a very strong storyline. Getting involved in each persons problems and helping them really made me feel good.
      
      The main characters on the other hand, with their whole, “we can’t feel emotion” plot point was stupid. Yes, it had secret plot reasons, but if the characters in the game can’t be bothered to care, how can I?
      
      *technically, you heal, but because you are limited in healing items, it functions like having one massive bar of health.
      - Flaming Squirrel
        
        I heard they “got rid” of Lightning’s emotions because, after two games, they came to realize they’d never be able to get her to emote and decided to use it. Really stupid, I agree. I’m only to the part where you fight Noel (for the first time? I don’t know if you do it again), and I kinds liked where Lightning did her whole “I don’t care, I can’t care. I may not be human because of it, but if you think I won’t kill my friends to complete my mission, you’re wrong.” shpiel. I was really excited for the game because the countdown to doomsday made me think it would be Majora’s Mask with Final Fantasy graphics and story. But since you can’t reverse time, you’re rushed in a way that even MM didn’t put on you. Plus, I hate how you lose an hour of time by losing a fight. Also, your health doesn’t go full after each fight. Call me a wuss (you’re probably right), but I suck at JRPGs, and the regenerating health in the other two really made things easier. Even then, I could never beat the Barthendalus fight on Gran Pulse and had to resort to watching a playthrough on YouTube to get the rest of the story. I’m actually considering restarting the game on easy mode while I’m still early in the narrative just to get rid of those two issues.
      - http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
        
        I recall reading a review where the reviewer said they had to quit the game and restart it on easy mode to cut back on the stress of it all, and even then it was still frustratingly challenging at parts and overall a pretty stressful experience. Certainly not a game for everyone! It kind of bums me out, too, because I remember thinking the game looked like the best of the three at the time. I wanted to play ‘dress up Lightning’. I assume there’s at least a new game+ feature…
      - Flaming Squirrel
        
        yeah, people tell me you’re SUPPOSED to lose the first time you play, probably the second, maybe even the third time. you keep going back in NG+, stronger than you were before, and getting a little bit farther. that doesn’t sound like fun to me, even if you get different endings depending on what day you’re on when they world ends. I’ll just look those up later on YouTube. Also, I was expecting the combat to be like something out of a Tales game, but it’s not even that. Every action you take in the battlefield takes energy, even blocking, and that means you run out of stamina very, very quickly. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but I just mash my most powerful attack, switch to the next costume, and repeat until either I die, or the enemy dies.
      - Yilderim
        
        You are indeed doing it wrong. 😛
        
        You always have to save enough energy to block. Saving enough energy to block, timing your blocks, and attacking in bursts to cause stagger is how you play.
        
        It’s a game that, if you want to beat it on the first try, you have to bring a strategy guide of “here is where every quest is and how to beat them in the most efficient manner”. Which is because of the punishing time system not letting you explore at your own pace. World to explore +, not enough time to do it naturally -.
        
        It’s a game where you’re not expected to be able to fight everything right off, so you have to evaluate the risk/reward of each fight. An interesting mechanic. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to play the game through and die or get a guide. Risk/Reward +, Not Informed -.
        
        For almost every mechanic in LR that they have really right, they have something really wrong to counterbalance.
Flaming Squirrel

Ricardo is reliving the tickle-foot-torture his last business partner employed to get him to lower his prices. Look away, kids…

I never follow E3 too closely, but I agree that Sony had some awesome announcements this year. One game that I’m really looking forward to learning more about is No Man’s Sky. With 18 Quintillion life-sized planets to explore, and being able to name any “discoveries” you make, plus the chance to (maybe) run into another player somewhere out in the cosmos, this game sounds awesome. As a Minecraft fan, I’m stoked. But I’m also worried because with that many planets, how long will it take for the novelty to wear off? Like I said, I love Minecraft, but I still have to put it away for months at a time when I get burned out on doing the exact same thing over and over again. For me, No Man’s Sky is going to depend on how much it makes me want to pick it back up again. Still going to buy it, though, just because I admire how ambitious the developers are!
Also, I know there weren’t any big shows for it this year, but I’m still really freaking excited for Final Fantasy XV. VII is all well and good, but Squeenix said they would never rerelease it until they had come out with a Final Fantasy they thought would top it in terms of appeal and populatity- which speaks volumes about their expectations for XV.
So many great games I need to buy… Now I just need a PS4 to play them on!
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  No Man’s Sky definitely intrigues me, but one of the reasons I never got into Minecraft was because there’s a bit of a guilt factor, more so than other games. I can spend hours building stuff in that game, but I have this constant nagging voice at the back of my brain saying “If you’re going to do something creative, you should probably be DRAWING.” If No Man’s Sky is a big, open Mincraft-style playground, I suspect it may not be the game for me. I’ll still follow news on it just to find out what’s at the center of the galaxy, though.
  
  And FFXV is definitely looking incredible! I just really REALLY wish all the main characters weren’t guys in black leather, not to mention the extremely oversexed female representation in the game in the form of the bimbo mechanic. But watcha gonna do!
  - Flaming Squirrel
    
    I don’t have a problem with the all male cast since they’ve said they’re going for a road trip with the bros type of vibe. I think most of the controversy isn’t because they’re all one gender, it’s that they’re all male. After all, nobody had a problem when X-2 featured an all female core cast. As for the sexy woman, I don’t get what the big deal is there either. It’s not like Final Fantasy has been shy about showing skin in the past.
    I’ve never played Minecraft as a creative outlet. I’ve got my writing for that. I play it as a discovery/survival simulator, which is probably the way I’m going to be playing No Man’s Sky too.
charles81

Panel 4 made me immediately think of this:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/23588264/images/1362966247406.jpg
- Flaming Squirrel
  
  SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  You know why MGS2 is my favorite Metal Gear game? Because it had, like, a thousands crazy easter eggs!
Sunwu

LANTERNS AIN’T DINNER!
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  What DOES this guy eat for dinner anyhow??
  - Kid Chaos
    
    Fish?
    - Neska
      
      Blasphemy!
      Unless it’s a light red like pinot noir or chianti . . .
leavescat

Yeah Federation Force might not be exactly what people wanted, but the treehouse footage looked pretty great. If it turns out to be a good game, I won’t boycott it due to it not being a main metroid game. Also, a while back, there was a Metroid movie that got canned because Hollywood started asking about background universe elements, like what does Samus do in her spare time, what exactly is the Federation anyway, etc. Nintendo was like “huh, we… actually never thought of that, let’s get back to you in a decade or so.” Federation force (and, sigh, probably Other M) is likely an attempt to make the universe a little more concrete, movie or not. They did literally say that this game would help define the Federation’s role in the Metroid universe.

I can at least slightly forgive Other M for being extremely early in her career, so she could have a few combat nerves. It does make sense that she didn’t instantly turn into dauntless badass, but still, it went a bit too far.
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  I think Metroid Prime 2 and 3 had quite a bit of Federation backstory going on, and they were incredible Metroid games! Other M takes place just after Super Metroid, so I don’t think it was all that early in her career! In fact, the only Metroid game that chronologically takes place after it is Metroid Fusion. I’m not opposed to giving a more fleshed out Samus some PTSD, but I’d rather it make her a hardened shell as opposed to a cowering weakling! I also dislike how they made her powersuit just vanish when she became uncertain or afraid. Her power suit should not be tied to her emotional state! What is this, Full Metal Panic!?
  
  I also heard about that Metroid movie rumor, and I sure hope that wasn’t the case! What a silly reason to can the project. Probably good that it was canned, though, because it sounds like they would’ve shoved a significant amount of Galactic Federation story into my ideal ‘Samus kills monsters and metroids on a moody, atmospheric alien planet’ plot!
  - leavescat
    
    I thought it took place before Super Metroid. In that case it’s just silly, because she’d already blown up Ridley twice by that point.
Kid Chaos

Genchu-sama!!! How I’ve missed you! Hopefully, we’ll be reunited with Ken-chan soon, and we can all get drunk and talk about swords all night (then use them all day!).
- Neska
  
  Sounds like a party! Can I come? I can bring weapons and booze!
  - Kid Chaos
    
    Sure thing! Does sake come in kegs?
    - Neska
      
      I don’t know, but a sake bra in my size would prolly hold at least a half gallon!
Jake

for some odd reason when it comes to ships in this comic i think of something along these lines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCIZACz68bA
- Xinef
  
  If Pirates of the Caribbean were like this, I’d probably watch the movies 😀
Jonathan B

Probably the biggest E3 announce on my radar is the new 4th Mass Effect game. I don’t have any consoles, so that puts a lot of the announced games out of my reach, but the Deus Ex one also has me curious. Which reminds me I need to eventually finish Deus Ex: Human Revolutions. I finished Hong Kong but haven’t gone any further due to other priorities.
Madison Link

Regarding your question on Inside Out: Clearly, the ‘bubble gum song’ gets priority delivery by Long Term Memory. That’s why you keep getting it stuck in your head.
- Kid Chaos
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4RSvXngSDg
Insane Disciple

Who sleeps with ammunition?😅
darkfalcon3274

“I’m sure the [FF7] remake is two or three years away, if not more with Tetsuya Nomura at the helm.”

You were close! Five years!
- http://www.nn4b.com suburban_samurai
  
  I was a fool to underestimate Nomura’s lengthy production cycles!

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