Song of the Day: Never Forget (Midnight Version by Kazuma Jinnouchi)

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Arleigh

It looks like I have finally reached a personal milestone on this very site which I began on an overcast morning the day before Christmas 2009.

With E3 in full swing and video gaming sure to dominate pretty much everything entertainment throughout the week I thought it best that the latest “Song of the Day” come from one of the best video game soundtracks I’ve heard since I began listening to them these last 20 or so years.

“Never Forget (Midnight Version)” is the reimagining of the classic song from both Halo 2 and Halo 3 by the franchises original composer Martin O’Donnell. This time 343 Industries in-house composer, Kazuma Jinnouchi takes the “Never Forget” song Halo fans have come to love and gives it new life and adding some minor touches to make it fit the bittersweet end to the very emotional ending to Halo 4.

There’s a bit more electronic instrumentation to Jinnouchi’s reimagining and the nice touch of putting some extra emphasis on the brass section of the orchestra to give the song a martial feel to it.

I love O’Donnell’s version, but after hearing this reimiaging by Kazuma Jinnouchi I do believe that it’s the best version out there, IMHO.

Trailer: Halo (Official E3 Trailer)

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Arleigh

What would an Xbox console be without it’s flagship title. The Xbox One will have it’s Master Chief and at Microsoft’s E3 Presser we were introduced to the first trailer of what could only be the next title in the long-running and critically-acclaimed series simply called Halo.

If the announcement that the game will run on a smooth and native 60 frames per second then this trailer may just be in-game (though we’ll find out in due time if this is a correct assumption or not). Whether it is n-game scenes or a pre-rendered cinematic matters not. It’s a new Halo title and after the success both financially and critically of Halo 4 there’s no doubt that there’s now new life in the franchise that both fans and critics alike were calling dated and obsolete.

343 Industries will have a new playpen with advanced tools to make the move of the franchise from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One a smooth upgrade.

Halo for the Xbox One is set for a 2014 release date.

Trailer: Quantum Break (Official E3 Trailer)

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Arleigh

Remedy Entertainment announced just a few weeks ago that they will be releasing a new title for the upcoming new Xbox One console. This game is Quantum Break.

Remedy has made it known that the game will blur the lines between what is a game and what’s tv. The studio’s previous title, Alan Wake, did a great job in creating a game and using the tv episodic narrative to help propel the gameplay forward. It was like playing a tv show throughout a full season.

Will Quantum Break finally break the wall which separates the two entertainment medium? Only time will tell, but if Remedy promises to have the game run on the very graphics engine the trailer was using then it may just end up being the standard bearer of what a next-gen console game should look like.

Quantum Break has no set date for release but will only be available on the Xbox One.

Trailer: The Walking Dead: 400 Days

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Arleigh

One of the most critically-acclaimed video game titles of 2012 returns sometime in late 2013 with a new season of episodic content. The Walking Dead by Telltale Games announced at E3 earlier today that new DLC content will be arriving sometime later this year.

This new season will be called The Walking Dead: 400 Days and it looks to take adventure point-and-click success story of 2012 further into Robert Kirkman’s zombie apocalypse world. There’s no word on whether a certain Clementine will make an appearance in this new season, but the producers from tElltale Games have made it known that they plan to try and get the video game more in line with the tv series on AMC and maybe even get the acting talent from the show in showing up on the game.

The Walking Dead: 400 Days is set to be released in late 2013 for the Xbox 36, PS3, PS Vita, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and iOS.

Trailer: Dead Rising 3 (Gameplay Trailer)

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Arleigh

I will admit that zombie entertainment will always catch my attention. Yes, it probably has reached oversaturation, but guess what…I don’t care. I’ve always enjoyed the apocalyptic, Last Man On Earth possibilities that zombie entertainment has offered gamers, readers and viewers. This was the case with the first Dead Rising by Capcom and then by it’s sequel Dead Rising 2 a couple years ago.

Dead Rising 3 has now been announced as an exclusive title for the Xbox One and it looks to take the power of the One to upgrade the graphics, gameplay and overall experience of the title. This time around instead of set inside a mall or a Las Vegas strip-style location we have a game that’s more akin to Grand Theft Auto or Saints Row in terms of open-sandbox gameplay. This looks to be a natural progression for a franchise that seem to get bigger and bigger with each each release.

This gameplay trailer during the Microsoft E3 Presser just shows how much bigger and interactive Dead Rising 3 than it’s two previous predecessors.

Dead Rising 3 is set to be a launch title for the Xbox One.

Trailer: Crimson Dragon (E3 Announcement)

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Arleigh

Panzer Dragoon is a video game franchise that’s beloved by small, but very vocal group of gaming fans. The series first appeared in the SEGA Saturn way back in 1995 and last made an appearance on the Xbox in 2003 with Panzer Dragoon Orta.

It’s now been a decade since that last title and now the franchise returns with Crimson Dragon which also includes the return of the series’ original creator in Yukio Futatsugi and the series’ composer in Saori Kobayashi. Crimson Dragon doesn’t look to deviate away from it’s rail-shooter origins and for fans of the franchise that’s a relief. This new title looks to upgrade the series’ usual beautiful graphics by using that venerable graphics engine from Epic: Unreal Engine 3.

The title will be an Xbox One release but also only available through Xbox Live Arcade. There’s been many titles announced for the Xbox One, but Crimson Dragon looks to be the first one that’s developed to be released for the Xbox One through the Xbox Live Arcade game download system. Also, it looks like the game will feature the use of the Kinect sensor on the Xbox One to monitor a player’s right and left hand when it comes to aiming the homing missiles at targets.

Crimson Dragon has a tentative release date sometime in late 2013 and just in time for the Xbox One release.

Trailer: Titanfall (Official E3 Announcement)

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Arleigh

Titanfall is the first title to come out of Respawn Entertainment. This is big news in the gaming community. It’s the title many have been waiting for not because it’s any good (it’s not out yet so no way to gauge whether its good or bad), but because of who is making it.

Respawn Entertainment is the studio made up of former Infinity Ward developers and it’s two co-founders after a very acrimonious split (which included lawsuits and counter-lawsuits) with parent company Activision. There’s little love-lost between these two groups. Those who left had wanted to make something other than another Call of Duty title while Activision only wanted more Call of Duty titles (it continues to be a billion-dollar money maker for the company).

So, it’s now 2013 and at this year’s E3 we finally get a glimpse at Titanfall and exactly what Respawn Entertainment wanted to make but couldn’t while they remained with Activision. It’s been called a mecha first-person shooter. It looks to try and combine the run-and-gun aspects of this team of developers’ Call of Duty and Medal of Honor lineage with some Mech action.

Titanfall looks great from the announcement trailer released today at the Microsoft E3 Presser. It looks to be a title being put in the forefront as one of the new Xbox One’s exclusive titles. This means if one wanted to play this title when it comes out they can only play it on the Xbox One (Xbox 360 for those not willing to adopt the new system early) and not on the PS3 or the upcoming PS4.

Titanfall looks to drop on the Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows sometime in the Spring of 2014.

Trailer: Dragon Age: Inquisition (Official E3 Trailer)

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Arleigh

With Mass Effect 3 now over a year gone it’s time for BioWare to concentrate on moving forward with it’s fantasy rpg franchise which seems to have languished on the sidelines after the very controversial second title in the series. I speak of BioWare’s Dragon Age series and what fans of the title seem to consider a lost opportunity to make it the fantasy equivalent of Mass Effect.

The first game in the franchise was well-received but not without some complaints about the title’s gameplay mechanics being too reliant on micromanaging and less on intuitive controls. The second title was suppose to fix the problem when it came to combat which it did, but then this sequel brought up complaints about a storyline that felt rushed and game environments which relied too much of reusing the same backgrounds and layouts.

Now we have the announcement from EA and BioWare that the third game in the franchise will look to combine the good things about the first two games while looking to fix the problems which many saw as keeping the franchise from reaching great status.

Dragon Age: Inquisition arrives at this year’s E3 with a trailer which looks to be pre-rendered cinematics but with the title set to be released on the upcoming nextgen systems of the Xbox One and PS4 there’s a good chance that future gameplay trailers will look exactly like this trailer. Only time will tell whether that’s the case or not.

Dragon Age: Inquisition looks to drop on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and Microsoft Windows in the Fall of 2014.