Mister Jack

Well Square had a bunch of duds in their conference but Just Cause, Kingdom Hearts, and Deus Ex still made their showing better than EA's.

THEY'RE SHOWING ANOTHER REPEAT TRAILER? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?

Is Square really showing the same trailer twice right now? Holy shit they actually did it.

Okay I've never really been into Just Cause that much but I gotta admit that Just Cause 3 looks pretty fucking rad.

Nintendo didn't really have any major surprises but Star Fox looks cool at least.

STAR FOX WOOOOO

I guess you can't have E3 without SOMEONE bringing up Call of Duty

AND NOW SHENMUE 3? ARE YOU SHITTING ME? SONY, STOP, I CAN'T TAKE IT.

"I know you all like Final Fantasy....so here's a chibi game." edit: Fuck me, they actually did it. Well, that's it. Sony wins E3.

Earthbound Zero/Mother isn't really as good as most people probably think it is, but it's nice that it's officially available now, I suppose.

Well Ubisoft had a few duds but it was still infinitely better than that snoozefest that was the EA conference.

And once again Ubisoft falls into the "canned multiplayer dialogue during a trailer that nobody ever actually says" cliche.

Wow, Ubisoft is actually off to a pretty good start. I did not see that coming.

Even Mirror's Edge is making me go "eh, whatever." I'm sure it'll be alright but it's nothing I wasn't expecting when they announced it.

Oh my god EA's conference is SO BORING! Show me something I care about already!

It's still something, man.

Thank god there's actual conversations now. And they don't take place in an awkward first-person staredown anymore either. Fantastic.

Jesus, he's not even out yet and Ryu already sounds overpowered as fuck. Multiple regular attacks based on pressure sensitivity? TWO final smashes? Command inputs? He's getting all this shit no other character has.

Oh boy. Ryu. It's not like he wasn't already in EVERY SINGLE FIGHTING GAME EVER.

So this isn't part of the DC Cinematic Universe proper, but Bruce Timm is back on board for another DCAU movie and it looks great based on the promos so far.

To say that games are a service actually implies that there's...well, service involved, and the only games that I think even come close to fitting that definition are MMORPGs. I don't count DLC as part of a service because most of the time you have to pay extra for it. As for patches, developers are under no obligation whatsoever to ever release a single patch once a game is out, and if they do so it's either because they want to keep their customers playing longer or because something about their game was so broken that it was running the risk of affecting their sales. If games really were a service, they would be expected to release patches regularly, and you would be entitled to your money back if they failed to uphold their end of the bargain, even before steam officially pulled the trigger on it. I see games as a good, albeit a good you don't fully "own" in a legal sense, which has certainly caused some issues regarding used games that I hope we don't see again. On a separate point, I think this idea that's been proposed of "letting developers opt out of refunds" is utterly laughable. If developers could just decide not to give refunds, then how would we be any better off than we were before? Any major developer (DICE, Ubisoft) could just knowingly release a buggy, broken piece of shit like they always do and then say "Sorry! No refunds!" I absolutely oppose giving any developer special treatment. Everyone should have to take the same medicine. Regarding the matter of finding the right price point for short games, there really isn't a single magic number that works across the board. These developers really just need to use their best judgment to decide, realistically, how much the experience they provide is really worth. I couldn't say where the sweet spot is, but I do know that charging 20 dollars for a 90 minute vignette like Gone Home is practically an insult. I would feel ripped off as all hell if I paid 20 dollars for that game.

Total Biscuit pretty much sums up my opinion of this whole "Wahh steam refunds hurt indie devs" controversy. I have no sympathy for these people who want to release games that are under two hours and then overcharge for them. You can return practically every other kind of product there is for a refund if it turns out to be a piece of crap, and I don't see why PC games should be a special exception to that rule. If you want to release a short game, make it a good one and price it right. No more free rides for shitty developers.

My XCOM experience.

Ethan, you're a cool guy and all, but if there's ever a vote on whether or not to turn Kansas into scorched earth I'm going to have to vote yes. I hope you understand.