Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time - Gamescom Trailer 2012

Lots of sweet with only a little sour

First reaction to Sly Cooper making an appearance at Gamescom 2012: THANK THE GOOD LORD. Sly Cooper (and all of the classic PS platformers) was the reason I fell in love with not only the genre, but video games in general. And I'm very certain I'm not the only one who would say that. Sly is back in all of his cell shaded goodness, and he's trying to save his family's history from disappearing forever.

Before all of the good, one area of concern: why do games feel it's necessary to include multiple playable characters now? Back in the good ole days of Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, OG Sly Cooper, we played as our one protagonist and that was good enough because the game itself kept us interested. Are people's attention span that short now? I hope that the other characters are done well, and it seems like they will have their own strengths at the very least.

Now onto the wins: it is about time we got another good PS3 platformer (I'm just assuming this game is going to be good. It's more of a hope than anything) and one that shows off how good cell shading looks on the Playstation system. Along with that, the PS Vita cross platform integration looks like it actually will add to the experience, which is always a positive. While I've always liked that you can just pick up your Vita and pick up from where you left off on your PS3, now you can use the Vita to find hidden treasures around Sly's world. And me likey hidden treasures.

PS All Stars: Battle Royale - Sweet Tooth Strategy Video

All of the comparisons

Not too long ago, on a recent episode of my video podcast, The Byte, we discussed the leaked (not yet confirmed) cast list for Play Station All Stars: Battle Royale. Since Sweet Tooth is one of the few confirmed characters that was available to try out at E3, it only seemed fitting to feature his strategy video. Since PSAS:BR is essentially Sony's attempt at a Super Smash kind of game, let the comparisons begin!

Other than beating Smash in the "longest title possible" category, there are a lot of similarities (and differences) that we can pull from this trailer. My favorite moment of "oh man I totally used that in Smash" was when they discussed Sweet's annoyance moves, or the moves that were only meant to do small amounts of damage quickly, therefore frustrating your opponent. If Mario's fireballs or Diddy's peanut cannon didn't do the same thing, I don't know what did. The other part that I liked is when the person mentioned Sweet Tooth is one of the easier characters to pick up, making him an attractive choice for beginners (see: Marth).

Some points where PSAS:BR has gone off the beaten smashing path: There are now three tiers of special attacks instead of just one super power per character, making each person you play as feel even more unique than the next. Each one drastically varies in severity; the first tier special may not throw your opponent off the stage for good, while the third tier special will have adversaries running for their lives. 

Needless to say, PSAS:BR looks largely like a carbon copy of the original Smash series, it's hard to say that the same ideas are not in place. However, with some tweaks to the formula and a more varied and interesting cast of characters (in my humble opinion) we could be in for a real treat here.

Darksiders 2 - Story Trailer

Goblins and Ghouls, oh my!

So, this looked pretty cool. What can you possibly hate about running around as Death himself cutting demons to pieces with a gigantic scythe? For a "story" trailer, the story here was a little sparse. All I could ascertain was that the humans are extinct (presumably because God finally killed all of us for something all the Republicans are yelling about) and only Death can bring us back to life. But hey, you get to fight the devil, so story surely isn't the forefront of the game.

Needless to say, Darksiders 2 is going to be big and fun.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance - Launch Trailer

Four More Years! Four More Years!

I fell in love with the original Kingdom Hearts just over ten years ago. It was the perfect combination of Final Fantasy and Disney, and I was enthralled from start to finish. Looking past the awkward Square Enix signature dialogue and wonky camera, I had found my favorite game until the sequel was slated for release. Enter Kingdom Hearts 2: Where the camera stuff was (mostly) fixed, action commands became just as prominent in combat as button mashing, and Aerith still had a really strange voice. Needless to say, the prospect of a third (and I assume final) entry to the trilogy interested me just a little bit.

But then we started getting different KH games. Chain of Memories was the start of it, a full length card turn based handheld title, where not playing the game technically didn't make you miss anything with the main story line. Instead of just doing one or two filler games for extra content, Square Enix kept pumping them out. Not only are we continuing to get handheld titles that convolute and confuse the gamers to what exactly is happening in the KH saga, but we don't even have a clue on when KH3 is going to grace our consoles.

That brings us to Dream Drop Distance, the newest title coming to the Nintendo 3DS. I got a chance to play the demo at E3, and I can solidly say that I no longer have any clue what is going on in this series. Donald and Goofy don't know who you are, you bounce around with a giant elephant and mouse, and the Hunchback of Notre Dame looks really strange in 3D. Whether you decide to confuse yourself farther with Dream Drop Distance is up to you, but if you're anything like me, you're quickly becoming very skeptical about how good KH3 could possibly be at this point. And that breaks my twelve year old heart.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 - "Villain Trailer"

But then I found out I could get Nuketown...

Yes, I know we as "real" gamers are supposed to hate on COD for its same game different package formula, but hell it's just too much fun. And the story seems so out of this world that I almost feel obligated to experience it. People are actually working their tails off making this seemingly mediocre rehashing of every first person shooter we've played since 2007, and we have to respect that.

Now that the sarcastic rant is over with, we take a glimpse at the guy who is going to try and blow up everybody... this time. Our bad guy seems to have control over the United States defense system, meaning that any kind of retaliation would lead to a very unpleasant visit from Nuketown. Speaking of Nuketown, if you preorder the game, you get a remodeling of Nuketown! I think that alone makes the game worth it. Nuketown!

Sleeping Dogs: GSP Master Fighter Trailer

And boom goes the dynamite

I had the extreme fortune of playing Sleeping Dogs both at PAX East and E3 this year, and I can tell you that it's definitely a blast. Borrowing from the Arkham Asylum/Arkham City melee combat system, Sleeping Dogs focuses on chaining combos together between enemies and timing counter attacks to take down a ton of dudes without suffering a scratch. Georges St. Pierre (GSP) shows off his MMA skills simultaneously with our main character to show just how authentic the combat will be in the game itself. Square Enix is making a point to bring a realistic fighting style to the less-than-realistic combat system (let's be real, as cool as it looks, taking on more than three guys at once is not something that has a high success rate). 

This trailer is extremely effective at doing what it intends: show how real the fighting is in Sleeping Dogs. A side by side comparison with one of the best MMA strikers in the world is as real as it gets, and only gets me more excited to try out the finished version of the game. One thing that a friend pointed out to me: the trailer could be misinterpreted as showing Kinect functionality if you have never seen anything about Sleeping Dogs or GSP. I didn't see it, but apparently some people might. Still, solid trailer, solid game. 

Assassin's Creed 3: Fourth of July Trailer

'MERICA

So here's the thing about this trailer. It's really awesome in showing us what the gameplay around Connor is going to look like (gorgeous, by the way). This trailer had in game graphics of our favorite assassin-to-be interacting with the world around him, and it's a violent one. AC3 is not going to be short on action, and the spirit of Independence Day meant this trailer was meant to be chock full of explosions.

But here's the thing that comes up short for me. Maybe the E3 trailer was SO good that it spoiled me, but this Fourth of July effort simply falls flat in creating as much excitement as the E3 installment. We learned things about story then, about who the redcoats are, and a little bit of who Connor may be. But then again... maybe it's supposed to be like that.