Originally published February 26, 2013 for Gaming Irresponsibly

February is the month of love and while the time for chocolates, flowers and romantic dinners has passed, our coverage of certain colorful characters continues.  This week we take a look at Wascot from Super Monday Night combat.  Whether or not you had a good Valentines weekend, you’ll be thankful you didn’t run into someone like this fellow!

Wascot, while not very well known, is definitely one of the weirdest, most awkward characters in videogames.  He stars in Super Monday Night Combat, a free to play multiplayer online battle arena that’s very trigger happy.   Unlike other MOBA’s, SMNC is all about real time movement, fast paced combat and lots of bullets and guns. It’s fun and exhilarating and certainly not your average MOBA.   Wascot belongs to the Commando Class, which are the glass cannons of the game.  This class, unlike any other class in the game, specializes in melee attacks as well as fast movement.  Because of this Wascot is your worst nightmare, his is skillful, deadly and will troll you at every chance he gets.

Wascot does not have one dysfunctional factor he has many.  From the outfit that he wears in the battle arena to the weapons he uses, he is dysfunction from head to toe.  Wascot wears a uniform to battle that resembles Bullseye, the title’s mascot.  However he seems to have modified it with a variety of “accessories.”  He switched Bullseye’s traditional yellow for the color orange and equipped himself with some biker-like gear.  He has a black helmet, gloves, shoulder pads and boots.  He seems to be wearing some sort of leather harness as well as a pair of fishnets.  Yes, you read that right… fishnets.  He also carries a teddy bear in his back.

His weapons are quite “unconventional” as well.  His primary weapon is a coin launcher, which disperses fake coins throughout the battlefield.  When an opponent tries to pick up the coins, they explode.  His secondary weapon is what he calls the -ahem-“Heart Breaker.”  Such weapon resembles a leather paddle with the shape of a heart at the very edge.  He uses the heart breaker to smack you around and as if that wasn’t enough, when he grapples you he will bend you over his knee and spank you with this weapon.  If you ever wanted to “troll and pwn” somebody, Wascot is your guy.

Before he took the character of Wascot, his name was Frank Deeford and even then he had obsessive tendencies.  His obsession revolved around anything SMNC especially if it was related to their mascot Bullseye.  His heroes fell from the pedestal he had them in when, as a fan, he called the post-match show and Bullseye accidentally hung up on him.  Since then he went from being a spectator to an active participant in SMNC matches, taking on the persona of Wascot.  However he now stalks Bullseye out of revenge, not love.

Originally published February 13, 2013 for Gaming Irresponsibly

Ah it is February and love is in the air.  It is time for chocolates, flowers and romantic dinners.  But nothing says it’s February like random tokens of dysfunctional appreciation from unbalanced individuals who feel left out of this faux-holiday.   So if you are single this Valentines day, Worry not!  Consider that it is better to be single, sane and happy than popular and pursued by some crazy suitor.  So, in this twisted spirit of valentines I present you Dysfunctional Love a weekly profile series that will run through February.  Each week we will highlight some of the more ‘colorful’ characters in games.  Enjoy!

This week we open with the well known Voldo from the Soul Calibur series.  Voldo holds a special place in my heart.  If there is one word that can describe Voldo, it’s Unconventional.  This spunky dude originates from the beloved Soul Calibur series; his first appearance took place in Soul Edge.  As a matter of fact, Voldo has appeared in every game of the Soul Calibur series to date!  He is a well-known character in the gaming community and considered a tough character to master among Soul Calibur fans.

His dysfunctional factor is his appearance.  He looks like kinky version of Edward scissor hands.  This is in part due to his signature weapon, a pair of katar, which resemble giant claws.  His signature look usually follows a Sadomasochistic motif, which tends to include a leather harness, a head trainer and fishnets.  In addition to this, he acts in a pseudo-animalistic way as his body bends and turns in ways not conventional for humans.  The stability of his  personality is questionable as his is obsessed with protecting the Money Pit, and honoring his dead master Vercci.

Most people would turn around and walk the other way should they encounter Voldo in a dark alley.  However, Voldo isn’t much of a terrible person.  His personal story revolves around a theme of loyalty and dedication.  Voldo has taken the task to protect his master’s property, the money pit.   In every iteration of Soul Calibur Voldo’s sanctuary has been ransacked or attacked in some way, which leads to his counter attack.  My favorite ending for Voldo is that of Soul Calibur IV in which he becomes the guardian of the Soul Calibur, keeping it from the hands of those who would use if for evil.

Originally published November 01, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

Ah yes, the mobile gaming revolution.  It has brought us the likes of Angry Birds, Triple Town and Infinity Blade.  This renaissance of videogames has spread the joys of gaming to the masses… and by masses I mean anybody with a smart phone.  Now the influx of games is starting to reverse and we are starting to see some successful mobile plataform games being released for the PC.   Hero Academy is one such game.  Originally available for iOS mobile devices, Hero Academy is now branching out with this PC version available via steam.  Read ahead and find out if Hero Academy is worth your time.

Hero Academy featured top-notch presentation when it was first released in for the iOS devices.  Now on steam, the game holds remarkably well, this is part due to its strong art style.  At this time, Hero Academy features 5 teams to choose from:  The Council, The Dark Elves, The Dwarves, The Tribe and Team Fortress 2.   While they are all different, each teams seems to fit in well within the Hero Academy aesthetic.  Every character sprite is nicely detailed and features upgrades corresponding to that class, which also fits nicely with the team’s overall theme.  All sprites are also animated and while the standard standing animation is nothing more than marionette-like waving and bobbing of body parts, it still looks nice.  The more eye-catching animations take place during battle, which is the meat of this game.  Overall very little was changed from the iOS version to this version.  This also applies to the audio, which borders a bit on repetitive.

For anybody that didn’t play the original Hero Academy, the game’s progression centers on a squared grid with a crystal on opposite sides.  The objective of the game is to destroy your opponent’s crystal.  In order to do so, you need to employ the diverse tactics available to your team.  The game essentially plays as a hybrid of chess and a turn based RPG.  Each turn is represented by a pie chart with 5 sub sections; each subsection represents a player action.   During your turn, you are able to move, attack, equip items or heal however you see fit.  By defeating your opponent’s forces, you get a crack at the other player’s crystal.   Overall the mix of turn based strategy and RPG elements is a pleasant one.

There is one major gripe that I have with Hero Academy:  Communication.   Because this version of Hero’s academy plays exactly as the mobile version, you are not able to see your opponent’s movements until they have executed them.  This works well when you are playing on the go, as you can load up the game and see if it is your turn, play, execute your strategy and then go about your day.  This does not work well when you are siting in front of a computer.  Once you are in a match and have executed your turn, then you just wait.  There is no way to know if your opponent is ready, away from keyboard, planning a strategy or has left his PC to make a sandwich.  So you wait, and then you wait some more.  There is a small space at the bottom left of the screen that any player can use to type messages; it is unfortunate that anybody hardly ever uses it.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that Hero’s Academy features cross platform play and that I’m able to play with people who own the game on their phones or on their iPads.  However, I dislike not knowing if they playing from such devices.  If I knew, then I would be able to give them a reasonable amount of time to respond.  The other option would be to run Hero’s Academy on the background while doing other things online, in order to allow other people enough time to respond; that is preposterous.  I played a few matches of Hero Academy and there were times when some players would take 10 minutes for a turn.  That means that I would have invested 30 minutes of my time for a measly 3 turns in this game.   There are much more interesting and exciting games out there that can do much more in that short amount of time.  This doesn’t make Hero Academy a bad game, it is a good mobile game… just not a great online game.

Pros

Same great gameplay, bigger screen

Cute sprites with good animations

Cons

You can make a sandwich while you wait for your turn

More expensive than the iOS version

Originally published September 28, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

It was about one year ago that I first heard about SMITE.  It was the new kid on the block when it came to the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre aka MOBA.  Seeing it in action really got me excited, Hi Rez sudios had successfully tweaked enough things to make the genre their own but also managed to craft a solid MOBA game. Smite follows the traditional MOBA progression yet changes the field of view to a third person perspective.  Further more, it gives the player WASD movement instead of the standard point and click.  In order to finish with style, Smite also adds stronger graphics than the current MOBA in the market.  But as with any game, there is much more to this one than its pretty exterior.  Read on and find out if it’s worth your time.

The first thing that catches your eye as you load Smite is its presentation. Smite has strong technical graphics, but suffers from an inconsistent art style.  This is obvious the moment you step out of your home temple, which is your base and starting area.  The temple looks great and the Minotaur you have to defend appears strong and intimidating.  However, as soon as you step out of this area, things take a turn for the generic.  The greatest offender here is the trees along side the jungle areas.  They look boxy and polygonal and have an abysmal texture painted on top of them.  Fortunately, it is not the arena that is the focus of the game, but the Gods that inhabit it.  Currently, Smite has 30 gods to choose from.  Most of these gods are drenched in style and have a personality of their own.  It is great to see a clash between multiple deities and their varied abilities. There are few rotten apples in this first batch of gods (Thor I’m looking at you), but nothing that is painful to look at.  It is also plausible that some of these gods look so plain in order to encourage the purchase of additional skins.  Some gods like the standard Zeus look like extremely generic, but have really eye catching alternate skins.

The music for the game is great, though limited.  What really stands out is the sound design; each god has its own unique and appropriate sound cues.  This further enhances the personality of each god. Even if I were blindfolded, I could easily recognize each god in a match due to the sound bites attached to their actions.  Take for example the Chinese god Sun Wukong; his audio clips have “crazy-monkey-king “ written all over them.   He screeches and taunts at his opponents during each of his attacks, which really embeds his essence into the battlefield.  For example, his ultimate attack, Year of the Monkey, really feels like a celebration as you see and hear all of the fireworks exploding and whirling through the air.   Overall the audio is well designed and executed.  However, occasionally the narration of the game will lag behind, the narrator might announce a double kill before even announcing the first kill.   This is far and in between, but at times might confuse the players in the arena.

The meat of every MOBA is its gameplay and Smite has plenty of tweaks to keep the formula fresh and streamlined.  The first thing a new player will notice upon logging in to the game client is that newbies are grouped together into a novice queue.  This allows newcomers to get used to the game without being harassed by higher-level players.  In this mode skill upgrades and item purchases are done automatically for you, ensuring that players focus on learning to play the game.  Shortly afterwards players rank up and have access to the regular queue and can start planning on constructing specialized builds.It is in this queue where the game really begins to shine.  Like other MOBA games in the market Smite has 3 major lanes in the map, a jungle area and a home base or “temple” area.   The lines are guarded by towers and in the case Smite, the innermost defense of a lane is not a tower but a phoenix.  Once a phoenix is defeated, stronger minions spawn in that lane attempting to invade the temple.  Inside the temple there is a Minotaur, slay him and victory will be awarded to your team.  But beware, this Minotaur will defend himself.  Furthermore, the minotaur gains a buff if there are allied phoenix or towers still standing so attack him at your own risk.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, Smite mixes things up by switching the perspective to third person and giving the player full WASD control.   By doing so, Smite needs to use the movement of the mouse to aim and move the camera.  This makes every attack on smite a “skill shot,” in other words don’t expect to click on an enemy and assume that your attack will land or that they will not evade it.  This really puts the emphasis on action rather than passive gameplay.  While taking care of enemy spawns is still relatively easy, dueling another player is immediately intense and rewarding.  During these duels it is imperative to judge speed, distance and orientation.  Knowing which skills you can use and how to use them, as well as what type of enemy you are facing is crucial during higher ranked matches.  During these 1-on-1 duels each god is constantly moving and taunting as well as attacking and snaring.  These types of skirmishes are most common at the beginning of a match, when each god is trying to protect its lane.

As the match progresses, gods will team up to take down lanes or defend them, these events lead to team battles.  In these matches the squad that makes better use of team strategies and has a better squad composition will emerge victorious. Having a good mix of melee, range and tank characters gives a team a higher chance at survival. The matches in Smite last on average about 30 minutes.   Unlike other games, these tend to go by pretty quickly and are full of action.  By the thirty-minute mark ultimate attacks will be triggered, towers will be destroyed, gods will be ganked, phoenix will be slain and reborn and ultimately a Minotaur will be slain. Overall, Smite feels like a faster and more intense version of the battle arenas currently in the market, which is a welcomed change in this genre.  If you are into duking it out in an online arena, you should definitely check out Smite.

Pros:

More action and less passive gameplay

Mythological theme with deities from several cultures

Better Graphics than the competition

Fast character progression

Excellent Macro communication system

Ability to purchase gods with in-game points

Cons:

Occasional audio glitches

Inconsistent art style

Originally published September 06, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

Yes, I know.  You are probably reading this article shaking your head from side to side.  The answer is yes; I do dare resurrect this feature.  For those of you reading this and are unfamiliar with the backlog challenge, I’ll summarize it briefly:

I will not buy any new games in 2012 and I will try and finish games from my backlog.

The challenge was started back in January of this year.  I started with a few set of rules and some exceptions.  Some of these have been upheld and others have been broken.  I kept posting about this challenge roughly in a monthly basis; then the summer came.  Summer put a big dent on my available time, since I decided to go to summer school while working full time.

This was a blessing and a curse.  Because I had limited free time, I never had a chance to pay attention at what was being released during the summer.  However, this also meant that I had less time to sink my teeth into my backlog.  This was rather unfortunate because since the beginning of the year, I had been finishing games at a rather sluggish pace.  I had planned to finish at least one game per week for the entire duration of the summer.  This, of course, did not happen.   I ended up finishing two games over the summer:  Bioshock and Portal 2.   Both games are amazing experiences from beginning to end.

I wish I had invested the little time available I had into comparable experiences.  Unfortunately, I was playing 3 MMO’s at the time.  First up was my return to Final Fantasy XIV, which reminded me why the game is getting a reboot.  The original build of FFXIV was so atrocious, it will be remembered as one the worst MMO’s releases in videogame history.  Then was the death of Star Wars:  The Old Republic.  This MMO falls into the category of “gaming wounds.”  It is one of those games that you want to be successful, but ultimately they fail.  I knew it was over when I decided to take the game for a spin and my game character “woke up” to find a deserted capital city.  Every player was gone.  I was completely alone.  Last but not least is the original Guild Wars.  When Arenanet announced that they would be releasing Guild Wars 2 in August of this year, I was flabbergasted.  I simply had to get more points into my Hall of Monuments; and with that the grind for Hall of Monument completion began.

It is now early September and I do not play FFXIV or SWTOR.  Even Guild Wars has been cut from my gaming list.  Now I only play either Super Monday Night Combat or Guild Wars 2.  Currently SMNC is only used as a palate cleanser for those rare of occasions when I get temporarily tired of Guild Wars 2.  The challenge now is not to avoid buying new games because, quite honestly, I have enough games to keep me entertained.  The challenge now lies in leaving the wonderful world of Tyria to play any other game.  The Gauntlet has been thrown!

Originally published August 03, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

For anybody that has played Defense of the Ancients or League of Legends, the term “MOBA” is as ubiquitous as “FPS” is for those who play Call of Duty.  However to the average gamer, “MOBA” is not as familiar.  That is bound to change with the rise in popularity of League of Legends and the imminent release of Defense of the Ancients 2.   MOBA, which stands for Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, is gaming genre that dates back to the original Warcraft III mod.  This style of gameplay has been around for a while, but right now it is really starting to take off.

League of legends has gathered such an impressive player base that the game is now featured in the Major League Gaming website.  Tournaments are now held for LOL with thousands of dollars as the prize for the winning team.  With so much commotion surrounding this game, I had to try a match of League of Legends; honestly, it was underwhelming.   I can appreciate the intricate weaving of game mechanics and progression from the game design standpoint.  However, I can’t get past the first 15 minutes of the game.  They are slow and boring.  You may certainly call me shallow, but the truth is, this game fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch on its way down.  I can see this game being very exciting near the late half of a match, but the first half is a tough sell.  It was quite unfortunate, since I enjoyed the MOBA formula.  Fortunately for me, there are alternatives to several MOBA giants out there.  Check them out, you might end up being pleasantly surprised.

Awesomenauts

I like to call this one the “gateway-MOBA.”  It plays well, has great controls and it is very polished.  Did I mention it is 2D?   No?  Well, it is!  That gives this game a very multiplayer co-op/versus platformer feel.  It’s great!  It is highly stylized so it looks great in motion.  Each character feels unique and full of personality.  They arenas are nicely varied and stylized as well.  The only draw back for this title is that there is only one character for each role.  So there really is only one tank, one character that specializes in “gank-ing,” one healer, etc…   Recently the game was updated to add two new characters.  These proved to be worthy additions to the game and I hope there are subsequent updates.

Super Monday Night Combat

It is rather easy to say that you are “really into” a game.  But after spending 300+ hours playing one, I can honestly say I’m really into Super Monday Night Combat.  This is a third person shooter-MOBA hybrid that is quite a spectacle.  SMNC follows the usual MOBA formula but makes some key changes that make it feel fresh, fun and familiar.  Instead of having an isometric view of your character, you have full control of the character’s (or “pro”) movement and field vision.  That is because shooting is the primary way to deal damage in SMNC.  Basically, if you took League of Legends, Team Fortress 2 and Gears of War blended them together with a hint of over the top humor, you’d get Super Monday Night Combat.  If you have Steam you owe it to yourself to download this free-to-play game.  Yep you heard that right, it’s FREE.  Go get it.  Now.

Smite

Now if you like traditional MOBA purist you might be thinking:  “2D Perspective?! Heresy!  Third-Person Shooting?!  Blasphemy!”  Fine, fine!  Then Smite might be the game for you.  This game has not been released yet, but I’ve seen this one up and running at PAX and it is beautiful.  Smite brings to the table everything that League of legend lacks.  This game is fast, it is action packed and it is gorgeous.  The game follows a mythology inspired theme; so various gods from different backgrounds will be available and ready for battle.  Keep your eye on this one, it might be the next big thing in the MOBA scene.

Originally Published May 03, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, tasks you with the mission of freeing the country of Arluco from the grip of Queen Deirdanna.  If this sounds familiar, that is because Back in Action is a remake of Jagged Alliance 2, originally a tactical RPG for the PC released in the late 90’s.  The premise of this game is to re-master its graphics and rework its core mechanics around a Hybrid RTS frame-set.  The original Jagged Alliance 2 was a hit with PC gamers, unfortunately for fans of the series this remake is not the place to take a stroll down memory lane.

The presentation of Jagged Alliance:  Back in Action serves its purpose.  There is nothing fancy here; it just gets the job done.  There are two ways you can observe the traversal across the map.  There is the classic top down view and the isometric view.   During isometric view, you can use the scroll wheel of the mouse to pan the camera slightly down and get a more 3D feel for the environment.   You will need both views in order to get through any map.  This helps showcase how the maps have been revamped with 3D structures and terrain. The maps vary in scale and size and have been constructed with an open environment in mind.   The characters on the other hand, seem to have been less of a priority.  They all seem like randomly generated NPC’s from the pre-HD era.  They are stiff and some characters literally look the same.  Overall, there is nothing special here.  This title looks as generic as they come.

The audio is somewhat repetitive, however the  sound design is well done.  The static 3D environments seem a little more alive due the audio.  For example, in a swampy jungle map you will hear ambient sounds followed by the cries of birds.  If your squad is crossing a stream or pond, you will hear the swooshing and bubbling of water.  It is always a nice touch to have appropriate environmental cues to match your squad’s location. This is essential for a game that takes sound/noise into consideration during gameplay.  But I’ll elaborate more on that later.  The voice over in this game is completely a hit-or-miss.  A lot of lines are delivered quite flatly.  This could be an attempt to make the mercenaries appear gruff, tough and raw.  But the delivery of those one-liners is so abysmal that at times it would be better if the characters did not talk at all.

But enough about the window dressing, after all it was the solid gameplay mechanics that made Jagged Alliance 2 a classic.  The original title featured an assortment of gameplay styles fused together to create a great tactical RPG.   The main premise of Back in Action is to revamp this installment by taking away the turn-based segments and replacing them with a real time strategy system.  This is where things spiral out of control.  The core mechanic of battle has been switched to real time, however other aspects of the game have remained the same.   The original Jagged Alliance 2 featured a plethora of multitasking.  You could build your own team of mercenaries (aka ‘mercs’), each one with different skills, weapons and stats.   By equipping different items, each merc could enhance its own individual talents.  These talents are spread across several categories, which included descriptive stats (level and health points), efficiency stats (strength, intelligence, etc), and skill stats (where character classes differentiate according to points allotted to medical, explosive, and other skills).  Needless to say, the original Jagged Alliance 2 was super number-crunchy, but this was ok because it was turned based game.   This allowed the player to use his time freely before or during battle.  Unfortunately for Back in Action, the super-number-crunchy and super-micro-management aspect of the original is still present.  This type of set up does not work in a real time setting.   It is as simple as this:  Squad Alpha is a mercenary task force composed of three characters; two damage mercs and a medic.  One merc is a short range and melee specialist, the other merc specializes in burst fire at medium range.  The medic can also damage an enemy or two, but its primary function is to keep the other two alive.

During an encounter against a large group, an enemy breaks through the firing range and advances towards the melee specialist.  The stragglers of the enemy group inflict heavy damage on the burst-damage mercenary before he kills them all.  It would be very useful if clicking on the medic and then clicking on the injured mercs would heal them, but that does not happen.  For some reason, the medic has forgotten how to use a med-pac, so this means that a menu must be opened, the med-pac has to be equipped and then the order can be issued to heal the medic’s squad mates.   Something similar happens to the attack units; remember that enemy unit that broke off the group and started attacking your melee specialist?  Well, the enemy unit is now dead, but not before they were able to inflict severe damage to the melee unit.  The melee specialist mercenary will not use its melee weapon unless a menu is opened and his firearm is exchanged for his melee weapon.  Game mechanics that are done automatically in similar titles have to be manually done for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action.  This really delays the “real time” aspect of the game, since there are simply too many clicks to perform one simple action.

In addition to the convoluted gameplay, there are times when the path finding algorithm for friendly units miserably fails.   It is not game-breaking in anyway, since most of the time the mercenary squad is outside or in a spacious environment.  However, due to the open nature of the maps, sometimes you will have to be indoors.  This leads to close quarters combat, which can be a real pain when one of your squad mates pins his/her self between a structure and a mercenary.  Suddenly the game morphs from an RTS to a game of rearrange your party units.

Even after all of the OCD multitasking and failed path-finding algorithms, there is an interesting approach to the RTS system in this game.  Implemented into the HUD, to the right of each character portrait, there are four bars that indicate the status of each character.  Each bar represents health, energy, visibility and noise level.  Health, as usual, represents the number of hits a character can take before dying and can only be replenished by medicine.  Energy is directly related to the amount of distance a character can travel across the map and regenerates itself over time.  Visibility is affected by the characters affinity for camouflage and its current surroundings.  Some characters are better suited for assignments in the jungle, while others blend in more effectively in modern settings.  Last but not least, Noise levels waver based on how a character moves through an environment.   Slow careful movements keep the noise levels steady, while charging towards the enemy makes the bar quiver erratically, possibly alerting any enemy units that are nearby.

In order have a successful mission, all four bars need to be evaluated along with the terrain where the mission takes place.  In addition to this, character movement plays an important role in any tactical approach.  Each character has four options to choose from: Ready weapon, run, crouch and go prone.  Ready weapon and run will move a mercenary at a decent pace; the first one is focused on establishing a line of sight while the other one focuses on speed.  Crouch and go prone will sacrifice speed in order to gain a reduction in visibility and noise levels.  Evaluating the amount, proximity and type of enemies in each area will determine how to traverse through the map.

As explained in the previous paragraphs, Jagged Alliance 2: Back in Action, has plenty of mechanics that need to be kept in check in order to succeed at any stage of the game.  Overall, the game has the potential to entertain fans of the series and provide a different flavor to a classic PC title.  Unfortunately, the game is not as enjoyable to new comers due to design flaws or bugs within the game.  If any gamer is looking for a real time strategy title, there are better options out there.  If anybody is looking for an entry title to the series this is not the one to play first.  The original Jagged Alliance 2 is a better recommendation than the Back in Action remake.  Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is not broken, but there are too many factors that bog down the interesting part of this game, making it a long drawn affair instead of an enjoyable one.

Pros:

It’s a nice take on a classic franchise

Cons:

Excessive Multitasking

Generic Visuals

Not worth the asking price

Originally Published April 19, 2012 for Gaming Irresponsibly

As E3 approaches, more and more pieces of news will continue to trickle down to the media.  After all, E3 is one of the biggest gaming events of the year. Therefore, in order to have big reveals for the show, there has to be extensive preparation on the part of those participating in it.  This of course, leads to the infamous press leaks.  The most recent leak is a trailer for Kratos’ latest adventure, which is titled God of War: Ascension.  I’m sure a lot of fans are going crazy over this.  I’m not.  Basically, this upcoming title features Kratos (duh!) and takes place during his service under the Olympian gods.  Yes, it takes place before the original God of War.  No, it is not God of War: Ghosts of Sparta for the PSP.  This is another prequel.

So far the God of War series has 3 main titles, 1 mobile game and 2 portable games.  If we exclude the mobile game, then Ascension becomes the sixth title in the series.  That’s a lot of titles for a series that started in 2005.  Don’t get me wrong, the God of War series is a testament to the quality of games that can be played on the Play Station.  However, I wonder why there is more excitement and coverage on a leaked trailer for an existing franchise on an existing console, than say Pikmin 3, which is a relatively new series on a brand new console.  Why doesn’t Pikmin get any love?  Is it because it doesn’t have a trailer yet?

Every console right now has a great line up (well except the Wii who is headed towards the chopping block) and each console has their signature games.  It is foolish to think that there won’t be any more God of War, Halo or Mario games.  These franchises are money making machines and are here to stay.  Then why do we act surprised when we see franchises returning time and again?

Is there another action/adventure console-exclusive title as popular as God of War III on the Play Station 3?  No, I believe there is not.  So why do we even doubt that there will be any more installments to the series?  Take a look at Nintendo, this company survives on the charity of third party developers and a back bone of strong first party titles.  It is not a question of whether there will be a Mario game, but when.  The same goes for the Xbox’s Halo series.  Master Chief’s original trilogy might be concluded, but how can Microsoft pass up on the idea of bringing back the franchise that single-handedly  made Xbox a household name?