@TravMoody
Yeah, it might be called San Diego Comic-Con, but I like video games. Hell, I love them. Thankfully, SDCC has plenty of presentations for gamers to enjoy.
So, as per usual every year, rooms 6BCF and 24AB on Thursday were the sites of plenty of video game chatter. Check out how I “Bible Scaled” the game goodies I witnessed today on Day One:
–Sea of Thieves
–Gears of War 4
–Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
SEA OF THIEVES: THE ART OF ADVENTURE (Thursday) – Arguably the biggest surprise game of E3 2016, the Xbox exclusive also pirated a whopping 42 award nominations and 14 wins from the popular video game convention. It was a pleasure, then, to see Rare’s SDCC return to a nearly full crowd on Thursday morning; and it didn’t go without laughter, either. “My head had just grown exponentially since E3,” joked one of the game’s producers on the success of Sea of Thieves. The panel focused purely on the game’s art direction, chiefly what Rare feels will eventually separate this pirate world from any other. The open tropical world uses “brush marks” to deliver a painterly quality to every object through the use of visual separation of color and tone. “Everything has a story to tell,” the panelists projected in terms of the skewed, uneven, warped, faded, flattered, damaged —and even patched and repaired— effects on every single item in the game.
(Cont.) Even longtime fans of Rare will be pleased with ship figureheads: Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark Zero) and Banjo-Kazooie are just a pair of those easter eggs. Even gamers who prefer single-player campaigns (such as I) have to be pleased with Sea of Thieves. Inspired by the likes of Monkey Island and even Starz current pirate hit, Black Sails, the game is full of personality and strangely realism, as even skele-villains move ever so jaggedly like a man jogging with a broken foot. SoT also features Mer-men! With quite an ominous transformation in many of the characters, that can only lead to pirate ghosts —to which all nerds attending the panel were given a special G.I.T.D. figure of — and, of course, pirate ghost ships. 4/5 Bibles.
GEARS OF WAR 4 (Thursday) – Note to panelists: Always begin the panel with swag talk. Today, attending Gearheads were given a “Gear Pack” of cards with digital content useable for the upcoming Xbox One exclusive, Gears of War 4. The line-up included an entertaining bunch: the always humurous Gears creator Rod Ferguson; The Flash’s Weather Wizard, Liam McIntyre (James Dominic Fenix; uh, more on that later); video game voice veteran Laura Bailey (Kait Diaz); first time comic-conner–and way-quieter-than-his-LoT’s Firestorm-persona–Eugene Byrd (Del); and, the recently announced to return John DiMaggio (Marcus Fenix). “It was a blast to be the elder statesman in the cast. I’m just glad that Marcus is back! I was constipated [in my hesitance to spoil] on Twitter.”
(Cont.) Ferguson also had a humorous plug for Microsoft when a strange Windows update notification beep kept blaring off at the beginning of the panel; it was even funnier when Ferguson was referring to Gears as the only game at the E3 media briefings to have cursing. *BEEP!* Things got even crazier when Laura played “Marcus” and John played “JD”, and Aussie Liam actually nailed “Del”, Gears’ new black protagonist, while Eugene sweetly raised his vocals for “Kait”. Among a plethora of announcements, new character “Oscar Diaz” will be played by highly praised Star Wars and Sons of Anarchy alum, Jimmy Smits, who is scheduled to appear at the GOW4 Nerd HQ panel tomorrow. Oh, so about that middle name of our new lead… After the crowd begged DiMaggio to spill the goods and “give us the ‘D’!”, Ferguson hesitantly nodded, gave the go ahead, and the rest of Comic-Con history. Hardcore Gears fans know what I’m talking about. 3.5/5 Bibles.
CALL OF DUTY: INFINITE WARFARE (Thursday) – Infinity Ward Narrative Director Taylor Kurosaki found it a “tremendous honor to carry legacy for Infinity Ward” to take rich, memorable characters (eh?) further and deeper with a more immersive, seamless experience. Oh, tropes. “We are trying to entice the player to be the cinematographer of they own legacy”. When Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller–who certainly lived up to the website’s moniker with some lame and poorly timed humor (even with the usual mo-cap smack, “there’s balls all over these people!”–begged the question of “Why space?”, Kurosaki referred to Infinite Warfare as a “logical extension of playing soldier in your backyard with your friends — with real stakes. A natural progression to normal, human conflict.” As vehicular combat takes precedent in this year’s edition of COD, the dev team went with a more naval, industrial vibe combined with the appearance of NASA. Expect super future tech rubbing shoulders with exposed wires and back-up systems; you know, touch screens next to old school touch dial phones with.. chords.
(Cont.) While COD:IW’s new villain played by Jon Snow himself (Kit Harington) couldn’t be at the panel, the actor “found [his first video game gig as the invading dictator, Admiral Koch] very theatrical, freeing and lots of fun.” Unfortunately, the panel lacked much of Harington’s charm and spirit. The the panel was plagued with endless technical military jargon—including co-writer and starring voice actor Brian Bloom’s lengthy explanation on the role of his leading character— that likely wooed a few to sleep. *Yawn* And, sadly, there was no Ron Pearlman or Neil McDonough at the panel this year to provide additional star power. Thankfully Martian Manhunter himself (Supergirl’s David Harewood) was an enthusiastic fanboy; and the final, exclusive teaser footage of the new game was outstanding. So much so that Infinite Warfare’s space battles are anything you’d want from a Star Fox or Rogue Squadron; and the high-tech ground battles were everything I’ve ever wanted from a Terminator game. 3/5 Bibles.