Into the long boats and ready the battering ram, its time for another edition of EpicBattleCry! In this week’s Skirmish, we ponder the news the Lord of the Rings Online is going free this fall, rally around the news that His Airness, Michael Jordan will be the cover athlete for NBA 2K11, try to keep up with the plethora (Yes Jefe, a plethora) of PSP promotions falling out of the sky, and discuss the ‘unique’ approach Call of Duty: Black Ops has taken with its Co-Op mode.
First up in the main course, we take a bite out of the Big Three. With Sony having already announced a slew of titles pre-show, what will they have left to surprise us with? Will Microsoft and Nintendo deliver the goods with some big announcements they’ve kept close to the vest? Can some well-placed booth babes turn things around for OnLive?
Next up, EA, Activision, Ubisoft, THQ, and more are bringing down the thunder next week and we’re putting together a hit list for our picks from the third party devs. What are the must-sees, what might surprise us, and what are going to watch drown in a bathtub?
The Battle Cry of the Week goes to the possibility PSN might become a paid service, Star Wars: The Battle for Hoth, the downloadable games of E3 2010, and the need for motion controls and 3D gaming to get some backup from kick-ass games.
If you’ve got a comment on the show, sound off below, if you’ve got a Battle Cry you want to share, click here and sound off on the latest topic-started post! Stay sharp.
-iPod compatible mp4 download-
The wiki they talk about is this: http://epicbattleaxe.wikia.com/
Fellow axe heads, let us document the awesomeness that is Epic Battle Axe =D
Congrats on the baby, DK.
Congrats DK. Hope you give him or her an Epic name.
sexcellent show guys
name your baby Kratos Sheppard Kaiser
Congrats DK. and great show guys.
@DK Congrats on the new addition DK(& a really belated happy B-Day)
@Tony it would be funny to have you do an interview with Onlive, they’re supposedly going Live at E3
@Brent I would to hear thoughts on the upcoming Tron Evolution game,crappy tie in or my childhood dreams.
A Clip reel has to be made of your experiences. The Spastic Natal hands on, Someone blowdrying their virtual monchichi, hands on with the ridiculous,striking out with booth babes,etc
awesome made my monday, and cant wait for e3 shit is gonna be AWESOME!!!!!!!!
LMBAO!
Congrats DK.
If Microsoft has a Jet Set Radio sequal then there winners to me…
Even though I don’t like how the Ghost Recon franchise went even further down the arcade road,Future Soldier looks very interesting.But I most probably won’t buy it due to the “always on” DRM.I know that the few people who will boycott it won’t stop it,but I would go berserk if I buy it and then can’t play because the Noobisoft servers are down again.
PS: ROAD RASH HD !!! make it happen or I “§$%&@§$”
Love the Dr. Rockzo. I don’t know how to type out that laugh thing he does.
Congrats Mr. Money-Shizzle!
My battle cry goes to the lack of statistics in the podcast! There are NPD numbers posted every month, there are studies on gaming done all the time, etc. However, as comprehensive as the rest of EBC is, I want to hear some analysis of numbers. Statistics give credibility to what you say. The industry is going through some interesting changes lately, and following these statistical trends might help the show’s analytical abilities.
Plus, aren’t you an RPG fan, DK? You should dig the number-crunching as much as me!
Awesometastic show guys, I missed you!!
Grats on the baby DK!
Guys bring us as much info from E3 as possible. You lucky bastards! I wish I could go there with my wife!
Cheers axeheads!!
So glad my against the wall made it. Wonder war fare is the shit but to have to get your ass kick for a little while to get good with. Mario cart and brawl you can get a noob win and I’ve had more fun with the nintendo franchise. Note i say nintendo franchise because 3rd party can’t really get it right still can’t be fucked with the hand-held market
The one game I am REALLY interested to see at E3 is Ninja Gaiden 3. Please, pass by the Tecmo booth and ask them what’s up.
I’d like it if Konami put Symphony of the Night and the rest of the Castlevania that came after in a PS3 disc with trophies, why aren’t they doing that. They should be exploiting their properties. People have been shouting at Sega to release 2D Sonic games and they are finally doing it. While Lord of Shadows looks good, I still want those Castlevania games on a disc collection since I don’t own a gameboy or DS. They need to broaden availability of those games for other audiences.
Oh yeah, let’s hope for the Marvel Thor movie they use the cover version of Manowar’s Thor by Therion.
Gods, monsters, and men, we’ll die together in the end. OUAAAAA!!
EPIC! Good show guys, welcome back too.
My battle cry would go to Natal. The only positive thing I can say is that at least it will provide the amusement of a new slew of Youtube videos. Instead of Wii peripherals going through TV’s it will be feet and hands. I also look forward to seeing people get black eyes from split screen Natal games.
An E3 thing I’d like to see (though I know it won’t happen for a while if at all) is if DICE pulled out a teaser for a Mirror’s Edge 2. It was a unique experience that brought a breath of fresh air to platforming.
PS. Congrats Daniel…hopefully you don’t contaminate it with your punnery like you have Brent.
Congrats DK
Anyways, I just wanted to say that I am looking forward to footage of Agent. I know Rockstar isn’t going to be there but I’m hoping Sony is able to show something.
Another thing I am looking foward to is Little Big Planet 2. I want to see if you can actually create a game where sackboy traverses space in the first or third person. If this is the case then I will start brainstorming game ideas now.
I gotta say DK imitating Dr.Rockzo just brightened the rest of the week for me. Fabulous skirmish as always, you guys are the cure to the boredom cancer.
Two things I’m curious why nobody talks about or seem to want:
XBox 360 with Blu-ray support
The X360 has proven time after time how a multi-platform game would (typically) render better on it than a Blu-ray Disc on a PS3. So why hasn’t Microsoft made the jump into Blu-ray technology? Not only would it allow developers to further tout the console’s power, but also severely hamper piracy (due to the sheer size of a blu-ray torrent).
Games aside, the X360 also has the best UI for a home media centre, lacking only the ability to playback blu-ray movies. Right now the PS3 is still the preferred blu-ray player among regular non-gamer consumers due to price, reliability in terms of firmware updates and the ability to play a random PSN title if need be. With a broader, more diverse indie game selection on the XBLA, disc-less Netflix and now Natal, the X360 can really take a huge chunk of the cake off from Sony’s hands if they ever release a blu-ray capable console.
In-console gameplay video capture
Since the PS3 version of Just Cause 2 introduced the ability to capture video in-game and upload it directly to Youtube, why hasn’t any of the current gen consoles integrated this as a standard feature? As gamers tend to be narcissistic, wouldn’t it be to a console’s favour to let gamers easily share their exploits online?
Great ass show axe lords!!
I know you get this a lot, but without you guys I would not have a great game related place to go to an talk about game industry stuff.
not to mention, EBC just makes it all awesome
Hope to see inFAMOUS 2 information, and hopefully something on my google reader about Warhammer Online
Sweet! Totally was not expecting to be featured again!
It was a War cry about how shit it was that Demon’s Souls was not hitting the UK, which is now no longer true what with the Black Phantom Edition coming at the end of the month!
By the way I now write for http://www.thegamerstudio.com under my real name Charlie Moritz, so good times! Hopefully one day I’ll meet good old Daniel Kaiser at E3 when I’m a big gaming journalist!
Great show guys! Looking forward to King of Fighters XIII which will be at E3, so I hope you guys cover it. Other than that one which is my main concern, Demon Souls 2, LBP2, Naruto Ninja Storm 2, BlazBlue CS and anything Sony. I guess I’ll look at the Move crap, but I dont expect much. Motion controls and 3D are BS. Gimmicks are for kids.They can keep it.If Sony can announce something cheap combining a PSP with a Phone, I might pick it up. Need a new phone and my PSP is dominately a MP3 player now until Persona 3 PSP.
Please try to catch a glimpse of Vanquish at E3. It’s from Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Infinite Space, MadWorld), Shinji Mikami is working on it. I can’t understand how people are not exited about this.
Let’s not forget about the potential of a cloud service with PSN+. There are already rumors about PS Cloud, and Cloud Surf…which is pretty exciting in itself.
But for those of you who really understand cloud systems and it’s potential you might be thinking cloud updates. What does that mean to the user? You’d never have to download and install any updates, you’d never notice it happens.
There’s already an antivirus out there that does it called Panda Cloud and a website by the name of pUT.iO that uses a cloud service for downloading and watching or listening to movies and music.
If Sony has anything up it’s sleeve it’s the new technical potential of cloud systems and it’s PSN+ service.
A Big Ass Surprise from Sony would be God of War 4, next to ghost of Sparta. Not that I have ever played one (check the Ureview about GoW 3), but this would be a HUGE surprise.
What I would want you all to check out is the Atlus panel. Back in February there was a couple articles circulating that a sequel to a 2009 game will be arriving fall of this year. If it is in fact Demon’s Souls 2 I promise to add any amount of souls I have collected to your collection.
The first Demon’s Souls was an amazingly well crafted experience. The enemies were challenging, and the incredible atmosphere had the player drawn in till the end.
Also Congrats DK!
Great Show. It’s always good but this one is a prime example of why EBC is great. Interesting conversations and a LOT of fun, definitely something to keep up.
Breakdown:
DK, congratulations ‘man’. Gotta love the way you anounced it as well, brilliantly done! On a completely related sidenote: Keep up the puns.
I think Sony is for sure on a nice track with al this Pre-E3-stuff (pre3?), what they’re practically doing is lengthening the E3 a couple of weeks, creating a lot of hype for their platform and it’s working great for them I think. And that’s coming from a ‘pureblood’ PC-gamer. Just hope they’ve got something left.
on Microsoft and Nintendo I’m kinda in the same boat… we know what to expect (Motion stuff and such), but nothing that really should keep the hardcore up in arms, just hoping for surprises.
From a third party perspective: DE:HR looks awesome indeed, hoping to see a little more of things like Civ5 and Portal2. Perhaps something Mass Effect, but that might be a bit too hopefull.
LOL at the ending btw!
I wonder if NBA 2K11 will have am MJ Baseball minigame.
awesome show as always guys
congratz on the baby DK
and hope you guys have a good stay at E3
congrats on the baby DK, a new axe head to added to the family
You are on fire, Mr. Kayser. A third one? Well done. All the happiness and health to you and your family, man.
Great show as usual. Looking forward to see the E3 coverage.
And you know we’re expecting to see a video of Tony going crazy with Natal, right?
Hi my fellow axe heads, The game I whant to know more about is no other then Guildwars 2. Been playing the games(s) since release and just love the pvp system in the game, and it´s been in the dark for while now and I simple whant to know more, thanks for another great show…
Great show guys! There’s going to be so much to see and play next week so I hope you guys have a great time. If each of you could give us a “Top Five Most Exciting Announcements” for the each day of the conference I think that would be really great. Be safe and enjoy E3! I definitely plan on attending one year
I’m so jealous…
Congrats on the good news DK, look forward to the the announcement of the birth of Commander Shepard Kayser.
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I think you guys have a bit too much faith in Sony doing well at E3. I’ve been following all the news and it really does seems like they’ve let all they’re “Oh saw that one coming.”s out of the box. I do believe though that theres a hidden power horse that you guys and Daniel of all people to have missed. Mass Effect 3. Bioware said they’d be releasing the game a year after Mass Effect 2, and since they debuted ME2 at E3 09 why wouldn’t they debut at this one? How about Deus Ex…? The new trailer looked pretty cool. Especially how he sounded like Christian Bale the entire trailer. Well keep your fingers crossed on the E3 monster underneath the bed and in the closet to pop out and eat up our gaming attension.
Btw Congrats Danny Boy
Congrats DK, awesome news for you and your wife. I’m sure all the axeheads here hope for the best for you and your family.
Awesome show guys but that’s a given really.
Been thinkin about registering on this site for a long time now – D.Money’s announcement of a new little one finally pushed me into going through with it.
Grats on the news DK.
…and epic podcast as always.
epic epic epic show
Hello, my battlecry goes to (this is really important and needs to be said)….goes to the VIDEO GAME NEWS MEDIA!!!!!! you people bring us the latest and best news and I just want you to know that we the fans appreciate it a lot…E3 will yet again prove exactly how great the video game news media is….I also love the fact that the news media, especially the battlaxe crew, isn’t afraid to truly put out their opinions on some of the crap going on in the industry. The recent pay to play online when renting was a great issue brought up, maybe the media can ride up EA and THQ on what the deal is with this……anyways the thing I want to see at E3 is more information on what the future of gaming will be like, maybe they will talk about the ‘farmhouse’ pay to play ideas and so on……..Muzamil out
I missed you guys! Good epi, as usual, and I can’t wait for your e3 coverage.
That new Wii peripheral has to be the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a while for video games. It’s exactly the same as what they clip on to you in a freaking hospital. I want to feel like I’m in a hospital hooked up to life support when playing video games? No, no I don’t.
@DK congrats, and let me see what I can dig out of my friend who works at Bethesda about new Elder Scrolls
I can’t wait to see gameplay of The Last Gaurdian!! That
game just has such an amazing look and feel to it!
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Your show just adds to my excitement for E3! I can’t wait to be assaulted by the endless onslaught of audio-visual marketing mayhem… oh f’n yeah!!!
As far as E3 im excited for practically anything. However, there is one developer that I always follow and look for information on. This developer is Rebellion. Before anyone jumps down my throat let me explain. Rebellion yes has had a mediocore track record in the past few years (I enjoyed Shellshock 2)They aren’t bad developers either. Which shows for their better games like AVP, Rogue Trooper and some others.
The title that intrigues me the most when looking their library (and got me into being a fan of theirs) is Sniper Elite. Such a great sniping game with realistic features. I would wholeheartedly love for Rebellion to showcase a sequel to sniper Elite at E3. Given they really do not have anything lined up (Beyond Sniper Elite wii..which could be a test of the waters..yeah?) and are exhibiotrs at the show. I fully expect them to shwocase something and I hope its Sniper Elite, Rogue Trooper 2, new ip..hell I would even like a new Rogue Warrior game if given more time to dev. for. Thats my battlecry.
Oh and..as a favor to me..and most likely to the others on this site. One of you..HAS to flirt with a booth babe. It doesn’t matter which booth or whatever. Someone has to get their flirt on..and score. Also capture this moment on camera..lol.
Hello guys
Thanks for a great show, me and my friends enjoy it every week! Even tho E3 is the big thing, Im guessing you will cover alot from E3 on your own, so I’d like you to also talk about something else. (But if you could, try to get as much info about Zelda as you possibly can. I simply love that game no matter what).
Anyway, I commented it last EBC and I will again, because I’d like to hear what your thoughts are. What Im concerned about is how almost every game either lacks a very important feature, or has something done too much to the game etc. which drastically lowers the quality of the game. It seems like this occurs because of the magnitude every “big game” has, creating a metaphoric blindfold on the gamedevs of their own flaws.
Even tho gamers aren’t apriciated the way I think they should be, I still think the gaming industry would greatly benefit from using gamers to get the gamers pov of a game and not just their own, when developing a game. Not ever game needs this, but specially sequals are in dire need of maintaining “what made the first game so good”, which seems to be a hard thing to do for gamedevs.
How could this work, having gamers actually telling develpoers what should and should not be in a game?
Great show as always. I can’t wait to see everthing thats going to be at E3. Oh and congrats DK.
My Battle Cry goes out to Bethesda and their great idea of giving pre-buy packages that don’t require the gamer to pre-buy exclusively from Gamestop but to be able to do so from other retailers. I applaud Bethesda for thinking outside of the box and giving us these other options. Not only that, but they allow the gamer to choose where to pre-buy from based upon the pack features which I think is an epic idea. Never stop being classy Bethesda.
My battle cry goes out to DK, for spruking Gamestop in the gt tv E3 special.i could almost hear a hint of sarcasm when he said “power to the gamers”. way to bite the corporate bullet!
Really? My Battle Cry goes out to DK as well! I especially liked how he whored himself out during the GT special. ‘And I’ll be making updates from the showroom floor on my Kiiiiiiiiiiiin, a NEW PHONE available from Verizon.’ Way to go DK.
-Here’s the deal, folks. You do a commercial – you’re off the artistic roll call, forever. End of story. Okay? You’re another whore at the captialist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there’s a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink.” – Bill Hicks
Douche
Newshounds of.. Narcissistic Hatecrimes? both N and H… amazing
Or Newshounds of the Nefarious could also been one.
my battle cry goes to Microsoft for perhaps the stupidest name instead of natal, Kinect. seriously what the hell the name sounds like a lego ripoff. i love my 360 but seriously microsoft you need to stop being like nintendo and actually stay with the market your actually good at instead of making a wasted investment. now i know the took a risk with the xbox but that was a different experience then just coping the competition; games like halo and fable giving us completely different from anything on the gamecube and ps2 now what are the making? super microsft kart, tamagotic/nintendogs, KinectAdventures(seriously WHAT THE HELL) and the only game i care about something with starwars. so far evrything they have showed has cried at DON’T BUY THIS.
Great show as always guys. My battle cry has more tears then crying havoc. I really dislike how E3 is so exclusive. I get that they are worried about crowd control, and things getting leaked, and just complete mayhem; but could us gamers at least have a small chance of getting in? I say this because getting into the gaming industry is hard, and getting to a high enough position to warrant an invatation to events is even harder. Even if its just a raffle for 10 ( or 20,30,40, what ever) tickets to E3, I think would be much appreciated by the gaming community.
Anyway, great show, know you guys are going to do right by the gamers at E3 and keep us up to date on all the f ing awesome news.
Oh Snap !
A big Battle Cry going out to DK for the baby on the way. Its funny cause you say that the baby will be born in Q1 2011, cause that’s the time my very first child is expected to be born (around January). Its crazy to think ill be a dad man. I mean im almost 30, but it feels like yesterday when i was just a small kid and i gazed upon my first gaming console. It was an atari2600… that didn’t work LOL. But i played my cousins, and then Christmas of 87 came, and i got the mighty NES. Mario and Duckhunt blew me away !
SNES was my EPIC machine though ! That was the biggest jump visually for me. F-Zero charging at me going a million miles an hour with the mode 7, super Mario world was huge, Zelda was back to basics, contra had HUGE bosses, and super metroid…NUFF SAID.
Sorry got off track…anyway i enjoyed many different consoles over the years from play-station to Xbox and all i have to say is i hope i can contribute something to the gaming world like those before, me did for me. My goal is to create something totally awesome for my daughter/son to experience. While i am not so experienced in actually coding games i have created some in flash. My real strength is my art and what i have created. Digitally, and traditionally i have created some crazy characters ,environments and storys. Who knows, if i work my ass off enough ill be able to contribute to a worlds of warcarft , or a god of war.
Just hope ill use some of this imagination i got in this crazy head to do some damage. At-least i could say i did something for them. Although, they will never have the privilege of growing up in the golden age of gaming. The arcades, lines at the street fighter machine, face2face trash talk, the smell of stale popcorn LOL. Good times.
Again, congrats on the kid Daniel. Here’s hoping they don’t get your hair LOL. JK man, later!
Can’t wait to hear your opinions after E3. I haven’t been watching for a while but E3 2010 has brought me back.
What’s up my Epic Possy of Purgatory!!! Noobiablos here (you know, like a Noob Diablos/a Devil Noob/etc/etc)!!!
Alright, so we all know by now Batman: AA2 and are eagerly awaiting it’s release (as well as probably being more than a little disappointed that it didn’t show up at E3…at ALL). But any way, I’ve got some more Batman goodness for you guys.
My Battle Cry goes out to “Bat in the Sun Productions” for making one of, if not THE most kick ass Batman fan productions ever. I’m trying to find the words to explain just how awesome they are, but I don’t think those words have been invented yet.
The first video is “Patient J” (which has apparently been out for 5 years without my knowledge) and the second is “City of Scars” (which just came out afaik). Both together are a bit over an hour in length….and what an awesome hour it is.
Here’s a link to the website: http://batinthesun.com/
Hope you guys enjoy the videos.
What I loved the most about this years E3 was to see the remake of Golden Eye! That one has got to be awesome. The N64 version is still so much fun today and hasnt lost any of its charm. I would pop that game in at any time.
As a hardcore gamer who plays first person shooters since wolfenstein 3D, this gives me hope to maybe see more of the good old classic fps games to be remade in the future. I would give anything for a Hexen, Blood or Redneck Rampage remake for example. There are so many good old fps games that would be perfect for this.
This would also be a good opportunity for the game developers to show their hardcore gamer audience that they still care a lot about them by reviving the good old stuff. And these days, we hardcore gamers dont receive as much love from the devs as we would like.
It would also be interesting to see how the casual audience would respond to those classic fps games. If the gameplay of those games would be the same as back then, it would mean no aiming assist or bullettime or any of those tools that make the lives of casual fps players so much easier these days. Its just you, the gun and the enemy. You either shred everything thats in your way to pieces without hesitating or you die in agony.
I am so torn over Lord of the Rings online. I love that mmo and I am worried that this new business model is going to wreak havoc on an already fragile game. It is true that the population has dwindled a lot since release. But it is a really good MMO and I hope this serves to introduce more players to it. I only pray that they don’t alienate current subscribers/veterans in the process.
will there be an episode for this week?
FFS I’m getting withdrawal worse than a fucking heroin addict. Make with the podcast already! =)
I kinda agree with him, though. However, the phone bit didn’t bother me in the slightest. What *did* irk me, though, was his push for gamestop.
I mean here on EBA it’s all “fuck gamestop, their ilk and their unique DLC promos that takes all the fun out of collecting games” and then he turns around and promotes it with a big grin.
Mind you – I’m not being antagonistic about it. I know DK is a great guy. I’m just crying havoc and letting him know that it left a wee bit of a bad taste in my mouth.