So, 2 days ago I come home, read my journal inbox and find out that Firaxis has dropped a trailer for XCOM2, the sequel to one of the better reboots of a good game series in like...ever. Looks promising, set to release later this year, focuses more on guerilla tactics since you have to boot alien occupiers of the planet, meaning we either lost XCOM canonically, or this is picking up the plot of the original 3D reboot of X-Com, Dreamland: Freedom Ridge, which was never finished and what assets were done where bought up by a russian company to rework it into the UFO: Afterblank series. Also, we get FUCKING SNAKEMEN making a comeback, as well as melee combat it seems, with one of the soldiers in the trailer pulling a big sword (that may be a vibro or heat blade, based on the glow when he sheathes it) from his back and cleaving an alien in two. Also, XCOM now has a helicarrier.



THEN I hear from my friends that Capcom also announced MHX (Monster Hunter Cross), the next main entry into the Monster Hunter series, another one of my most favorite game series. We JUST got MH4U this year, I know MH4 came out back in 2013 in japan and 4U in 2014, but still, seeing that the game gets a release date this year in japan, we can expect it to release stateside and in the EU earliest next year, if we're lucky (though I guess capcom may just wait for the Ultimate version to release here). This game looks...well, different, gameplay wise. It will keep the very acrobatic, vertical gameplay from MH4, with the jumping and climbing, which is good. I like that. I wouldn't mind getting water combat back too, since I miss Lagiacrus, but since so many people (especially western gamers) didn't liked underwater combat...yeah it will probably never come back or only after some serious reworking in a later instance. Aside from that, the big new mechanic they introduce are ultimate attacks and different combat styles. Apprantly each piece of weapon will have different "combat styles" you can switch between, with different combos or approaches to combat. For example in the trailer you can see a light bowgun user doing a jump OVER a monster, shooting downwards at it while he leaps over it. Another thing are ultimate attacks which are...well, super fuck off animeish attacks that seem to often have wider reaches to their swings, massive damage and exagerated motions when your hunter pulls them off, like doing a half moon slow swing with your longsword before the slash, twirling your hammer 3 times before doing a massive explosive hammer swing, and a sword and shield hunter ripping off Links Spinslash, all accompanied by massive amounts of particle effects and so on. I...really don't know how to think about these. Sure, MH was always a but animeish, with the outlandish gun designs and the fact that you swirl and carry around fuckhuge swords and hammers, while taking magmabreaths and electric discharges to the face that would turn a modern battletank into slag. But the combat always had been somewhat...well, orthodox. When you used larger weapons, your chars swung them around like they had weight to them, and the attack animations in general were more "realistic". Yet now we have chars unleashing earth shattering kabooms by swinging their hammer like they're a Final Fantasy Limit break, and firing powered up energy projectiles from their bowguns that result in goddamn nukes. I dunno, call me a purist, I'll probably grow to like it in the end, up till now Capcom managed to always do a rather good job at balancing in these games.



So yeah, June just started with two huge game announcements for me, and I was rather surprised at that, since June is like...well its kinda non-descript, and these kinda announcements are something you'd see at a major gaming convention like E3 or Gamescon or PAX or I guess even SGC. Not something just dropped in the middle of the year without a huge event to back it up (then again, this could be a way to build up to said upcoming conventions, similiar how nintendo often drops stuff like this in their Nintendo Directs right before the big industry meetups). But yeah, thought that was sweet, but a bit too much to take in at once.

And then Bethesda goes ahead and releases a trailer for Fallout 4.



Seriously? Seriously. Okay...whatever. Looks good. Not really anything about the gameplay, and the trailer is more about showing off the world design and general graphics, as well as a bit of lore (new game takes place in Boston, and near Vault 111). But still, 3 big game announcements right the fuck outta nowhere, my brain can't take this.

I swear, if they announce a new main Ace Combat game tommorrow, or a new Souls game, or...I dunno, Secret of Mana, I swear I will fall into a coma.

Oh, also, somewhat older news, but The Banner Saga 2 is coming, as is Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Get hyped.