99 – The Family Gamers Podcast – E3 Preview with Stephen Duetzmann

June 5, 2018 Anitra Smith Podcast Episodes, The Family Gamers Podcast

Next week is going to be a big week in video games: The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3. We brought in Stephen from Engaged Family Gaming to tell us what to expect.

What We’ve Been Playing

Viral (the two-player variation. A great area-control game, but in our opinion, it’s better with more players.)

PDQ: the Pretty Darn Quick word game, from Gamewright. Here’s our review.

The Tea Dragon Society Card Game – we debate whether or not this is the cutest game ever… and school Stephen on the inclusion of the Pichu pokémon in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

My First Carcasonne – just fantastic.

Since we’ll be talking a lot about video games this episode, we also discussed video games we’ve been playing:

Mario Tennis Aces (demo)

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep (if you want the full Kingdom Hearts experience, you should buy these two PS4 packages with ridiculous names: Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX and Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue. It’s something like 300 hours’ worth of gameplay.)

We find out that “flossing” (known from Fortnite) started as “the Backpack Kid dance“.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – we discuss the storyline and the DLC, which could have been so much better.

Predictions

Nintendo is going to be the strongest with games that are fun for all ages. Not “family” games, not “hardcore” games.

Microsoft: There will be something with Minecraft, and something with Forza.

If you have an XBox, pay attention to the third-party developers (EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc.)

All the usual sports games will be coming out, of course.

Square Enix will be releasing a Kingdom Hearts for XBox.

Star Wars fans: Possibly look for a new Battlefront (or just buy one of the old ones, they’re cheap and appropriate for most ages). Unfortunately, Star Wars is diverging into two camps: some which is kid-appropriate, and some which is definitely NOT. Follow EA for more.

EA will also be announcing Anthem: “Basically Destiny, but everyone is Iron Man”

We spend some time on the difference between games rated M versus games rated T. The newest Halo game(s) are T. Destiny is also a T-rated game.

Andrew and Stephen are really hoping for a new Ori game (the first was Ori and the Blind Forest in 2015). Maybe this one will have “assists” to dial down the difficulty.

Anitra is excited for Fable, which might be a T, but more likely an M.

Ubisoft: Assassin’s Creed: Origins had a “discovery mode” which removes the NPCs (basically a museum / tour of ancient Egypt). The next one will be set in ancient Greece! We’re hoping “discovery mode” release date will be announced. Stephen wrote last year bemoaning how Assassin’s Creed could so easily be used to make history come alive – if only it was more appropriate for kids.
There will certainly be a new Just Dance, as well.

Square Enix: look for Final Fantasy XV, and hopefully release dates for Kingdom Hearts 3 and the Final Fantasy VII remake.

Sony: Spiderman – let’s hope it’s a actually a friendly neighborhood Spiderman and family-friendly.

Nintendo: Super Smash Bros will be the theme of the year. Something with Yoshi, maybe more on Metroid Prime 4, probably some more information on Pokémon, and the Nintendo online service.

Spyro is getting a remake! This will be a great family game.