Category Archives: E3

E3 2014 – Sony Press Conference

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Well, its finally time. The final conference of the night. Hopefully trying to end big, Sony Computer Entertainment’s Press Conference is up.

sonypress

Predictions: Uncharted 4, The Last Guardian (finally), Maybe something from The Order 1886.

Sony opened big with Destiny, revealing The Traveler, stating we’re Earth’s last hope. This game has everything: its big, its a FPS, it’s an RPG, it’s got a MMO style campaign. It’s gonna be huge. Bungie’s new world is going to be a big investment, and it’s obvious that PlayStation is backing them pretty hard.

Andrew House – President and Group CEO of SCE comes out and describes how the PlayStation brand caters to gamers, releasing the best games on the best console. July 17th will be the Destiny Playstation beta, and PS4 owners will get a first-look alpha on Thursday, June 12th, 2014. They also announced an exclusive Destiny White PS4 Bundle on September 9th, 2014 for the full launch of the game.

The Order 1886 is up next, and we get a nice reveal trailer/ gameplay blend. PS4 exclusive. Dark setting with our hero getting attacked by a zombie-like man who transforms into a werewolf. Very cinematic, very dark, very cool setting.

Indy IP up next – Entwined. Shows two very vibrant origami like creatures. Brought to us by the dev Pixel Opus, their first game. You control both characters at once, using both joysticks, in a tunnel-like obstacle based game. Available now on PS4.

SuckerPunch’s Infamous: Second Son announced stand-alone DLC featuring a female lead. Doesn’t require the original copy of the game. Infamous Second Son: First Light. August 2014.

Blazing along with new exclusives, Little Big Planet 3 announced. 4 player co-op with 3 new character: Oddsock, a dog which can jump off walls, Toggle, a fat guy who’s strong enough to push object or weigh them down, but can shrink to fit through tight spaces, and Swoop, a parrot that can fly, and carry other players. November release.

Shuehei Yoshida announced that LBP1 and LBP 2 user created levels will be transferable to LBP 3 which enhanced graphics.

From Software announced Bloodborne, a new gruesome creepy title. Gory fighting, zombie dogs. Coming 2015.

Next up is the big Far Cry 4 gameplay reveal. Ubisoft’s conference gave us the opening introductory sequence, now we get to explore. Location is Kyrat, high in the mountains. Very much a Far Cry game, and it looks gorgeous. much improved engine. You’re fitted with a wingsuit and grappling hook, which allows you to swing over gaps or scale the side of cliffs. You can shoot and drive, hi-jack other cars while driving, and wing-suit out of the vehicle if you happen to plummet off a cliff. Very bright and colourful locale. Looks like there’s 2 player co-op options as well. Second player is introduced and arrives on a little helicopter to pick you up. Definitely new uses for the wildlife and an elephant helps you attack a secured fortress. Tagline “every second is a story” November 2014. Exclusive to the PS4, a friend can join your game even if they don’t own a copy.

Adam Boyes – Publisher and Developer Relations comes out and talks about letters from the fans and what they want:

Zombies: a very fun, colourful trailer is before us showing a zombie outbreak, as a runner with headphones misses all the events behind him, as he slowly turns himself. Very cool. Pretty gross. Dead Island 2. Deep Silver does cool trailers.

Diablo 3 PS4 edition announced, gets bundled with exclusive The Last Of Us enemies and themed dungeon, and exclusive character class.

We get another montage trailer for Battlefield: Hardline, basically summarizing the gameplay heist reveal we got from EA earlier today. Highlights on the zipline and grapple gameplay mechanics.

Fans want exclusives: Disney Infinity 2.0 will have Hulk on Playstation. Destiny will have lots of PlayStation exclusive maps and guns.

Jumping into more from the indy developer section of the conference. Paradox Interactive announces Magicka 2 – Learn to Spell, again. Should probably learn to spell magic first. Tim Schafer and Double Fine remastering Grim Fandango, exclusive to PS4 and Vita. Devolver announced some indy games coming exclusively to PlayStation console: Broforce, Not a Hero, Hotline Miami 2, Titan Souls, The TALOS Principal, and others. Journey’s dev, Giant Squid announced their new game too: an underwater setting with a scuba guy: ABZU. Looks incredible.

Last but not least from the indies – No Man’s Sky from Hello Games, an infinite space and planet procedure game. Every player starts on their own unique plants. Vast and boundless. Planets have wildlife, and water habitats, players get an X-Wing to fly around, there’s space ships and dinosaurs, and then you can leave the planet’s atmosphere and there’s space battles, and you can fly right into another generated planet’s atmosphere. Pretty incredible showing from this tiny team. #mind_blown. Colourful and vibrant, no two planets alike.

Hardware time: Sony’s PS Camera solo sales exceed their expectation, announced their VR, Project Morpheus. And then outcome the sales and social numbers. Later this year, utilizing the sharing functionality, PS4 users will be able to publish videos right to Youtube.

A quick sizzle reel is shown advertising all the free to play titles coming to the Playstation consoles, and Vita. 25 titles coming. Truly free to play, doesn’t require PS+.

Playstation Now: open Beta starts July 31st for PS4 in Canada and US. PS3 and Vita shortly after, later to Sony TVs. 100 titles during the beta to test rental duration and pricing.

Sony still showing strong support for Vita, with 100 titles in development, and the ability for remote play a huge selling point, and cross title purchases. Playstation TV, their little peripheral, that allows sharing over 2 TVs, and streaming Playstation Now, remote play, $99.

The conference is getting a little stale at this point. Sony, as a company, is more than just the games, so they have to sell us on their other hardware endeavors, and services. But wrap it up.

We get a gameplay reveal of Mortal Kombat X. Looks great. Sub and Scorpion of course, and two new characters. Not as smooth as the rendered reveal, but looks real good. More brutal x-ray moves, smooth fluid, BRUTAL animations and effects, and new environmental interactions, and weapons.

Back to Sony Services to wrap up the hardware side of the company. Brian Michael Bendis comes out to reveal Powers TV show, 2 seasons green lit. Sony original, only on Playstation. Rachet and Clank the movie, 2015 and a remastering of the original game, for PS4.

Alright, moving on, time to bring out the heavy hitters, Sony, to wrap the show.

Last of Us Remastered, included Left Behind DLC, July 29th, 2014.

Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain trailer. The game looks incredible. The story, as always is confusing and convoluted, and jumps around. Hard to follow, but I’m stoked. Kojima was right a couple weeks ago when he said the trailer was a little hard to watch. There’s some gruesome looking parts. No announce date of course.

Rockstar, an E3 rarity, announced GTA V for PS4 this fall. Online profile will carry over from 360 and PS3. I’m sure this will be available on Xbox 1 too, but Sony got the right to announce it.

Finally closing in on the end of the show now: Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham Knight. Recently delayed, and thank god for that. Extra time is a blessing well deserved to polish this masterpiece. Visuals – incredible. Gameplay with the Batmobile – amazing. Scope of the city – Daunting. Batman’s new suit is ridiculously high-tech. Armored batmobile that goes into a tank-like mode, and can strafe. Batman wrecks this city. Rocksteady said this game would be faster paced, no more climbing through vents, you shoot through vents, and you can launch yourself out of the car, and it’s AI will patrol the city while you fly around. Fast maneuverability is key in this show-case. Next gen only – Playstation gets exclusive Scarecrow nightmare missions. Can’t wait.

Alright, the time has come, what will Sony close the show on?

You guess it, Uncharted 4. Nathan Drake and Sulley, one last time. Back to the jungle, and Drake’s model and face looks damn near real. A very dark and ominous feeling to the trailer, but he’s still wearing that wedding ring. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. 2015.

Sizzle reel to close the show. Thanks for coming everyone. 19 games shown.

No The Last Guardian from Team ICO. There’s always E3 2015.

Thanks for hanging with my today, it’s been tiring.
Stick around for new reviews and previews coming soon.

iRogan signing off.

E32014 – Ubisoft Press Conference

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3rd of the big 4 today, starting up. Ubisoft hosted by Aisha Tyler.

UbiPress

Far Cry 4’s first 5 minutes is on display. The game looks very similar to Far Cry 3, maybe just a next-gen boost, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s last gen and Next-gen. Assuming its going to be a very story driven FPS again. Game is based in the Himalayan mountains. Our character is on a bus with a passport, and we’re heading towards a militant checkpoint. Bus gets stopped, the papers our guide has gets rejected and all hell breaks loose. Our villain arrives via helicopter and grills the militant leader – ” I said stop the bus, not shoot the bus. Very big difference”. The villain has a similar psychotic entrance that Vaas had, he’s very calm and disturbing. Get the impression that the protagonist is related to the villain. Shout out to the villain w/ protagonist selfie. Nov 18th release.

Aisha Tyler is out, and the language censorship is turned off. Watch Dog’s success gets a brief mention, as does the fact that she’s in the game. Moving on to new stuff.

Just Dance 2015 – Yay dancing. #pee_break. This got a long presentation, 20+ people on the stage included.

The Division is up next with a long time lapse story trailer of the outbreak. Really shows the engine, day/night cycles, and city seasonal changes. Very awesome. Not an engine gameplay, as we already got that during the MS press conference.

Ubisoft’s next big project, once delayed – The Crew. Boasting gameplay that allows you drive across the entirety of the USA with no loading. We get a lengthy time lapse showcasing some cars and the different types of terrain to travel: deserts and snowy mountains, tarmac and off-road. Many different styles of cars, day/night cycles. The scope of this game is incredible, gigantic, and gorgeous. The time lapse showcases one of numerous 2+ hour missions. The game is to be released Nov 11th, 2014 on XBox1, PS4, and PC. Closed Beta available July 23rd, 2014.

Ubisoft’s biggest franchise, Assassin’s Creed is gonna be their big focus this year. the MS press conference had a brief showing on the multi-player side of Assassin’s Creed Unity, and at the Ubisoft side we get to see what single-player plays like, and how multi-player can be integrated. It seems like co-op can be drop in, as we pass some potential missions they advertise the option of “4 players”. We start of with the E3 staple – the story trailer set to lovely appropriate music. Unity focuses on the French Revolution. 4 assassins with the focus on co-operative gameplay. There are a ridiculous amount of NPC’s on the screen, hundreds, that you have to navigate through to reach your targets. Very simple, minimalistic HUD. Nothing static, just contextual. Eagle vision returns showing off the level’s focus, and enemies, and small context elements can pop up as requested so you know where to go. No maps on the HUD from what I can tell. New traversal elements, the ability to angle yourself up walls to grab ledges, instead of running straight at them. Similar combat mechanics, slow, paced. It does seem like the game is going back to the slower original assassin’s gameplay, scope the area, find info on the target, strike, or instigate a strike, and then run. To be release October 28th, 2014.

Time for a breather – another fitness game – Shape Up where your workout is a game, in a game, presented as a game. #gamer #focus

Time to pull on the heart strings, Ubisoft. Valiant Hearts – The Great War is next. Cartoon 2D side-scroller, made on the Rayman Legends engine, similar art style to Behemoth’s Castle Crashers. Focus is 4 players and a K-9 companion. The game is based on real WW1 history , 1914-1918, inspired by letters, taking place in a stylized universe. Bringing art and the past to life.

Nearing the end of the press conference now, as CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot is out to say thanks….and here our next new game:

Rainbow Six: Siege!

We’re shown a pre-alpha multi-player match of a house breach. Starts of with the Six’s drone view inside of the house as the terrorists are barricading the walls and windows, and a one minute countdown for the match to start. Six’s decide to breach from the roof and upstairs windows. 5 vs. 5 gameplay – 5 minute breach. Match/breach starts, and the level of destruction to the house is incredible. No need top go through the doors when you can shoot your way through the walls. Crazy damage model being shown. The character’s models do have a cartoonier look, not unlike Team Fortress in a way. Matches finishes with a cliff hanger as 2 Sixs breach through a wall into the room while one breaches through the ceiling. Incredible showcase. Rainbow Six Siege.

Aisha Tyler and Ubi out!

Last up will be Sony’s Press Conference to wrap the day.

E3 2014 – Electronic Arts Press Conference

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Next up is EA’s Press Conference. Expecting a lot of sports titles here, but hopefully we’ll get an update on Star Wars Battlefront.

EAPress

So, immediately starting things off we hear the famous Star Wars music and we get a developer documentary from DICE showcasing the research that has gone into making Star Wars Battlefront, and we get some footage of the in-engine visuals, but no gameplay. So just a small glimpse of what’s to come, wetting the appetite further.

We get a bigger insight into Dragon Age Inquisition. Switching between our parties characters. The art and design looks amazing, such detail in the environments. The opening trailer bat this conference is actually presented with a live chelloist up front. A nice touch.

Next up we get a brief blurb about Mass Effect 4 stating that EA’s Montreal studio is working on it, new setting is confirmed but we get some brief glimpses of some familiar races. Original ME team is working on a new IP. Also announced is that the original ME trilogy is coming to the PS4 as a complete package.

Sims 4 is up next. Its a thing, it’s getting released to the world.

EA Canada’s UFC game is on the docket, showcasing their audacity of putting Bruce Lee in a UFC game. We get to see Bruce Lee vs. BJ Penn in the octagon. Standing, striking and some ground submissions are shown. Very different style ground gameplay than previously seen with THQ’s fighting/wrestling games. Fighters show real damage as the fight progresses through the rounds. Get some glimpse of the how the fighters can utilize the cage for leverage.

NHL 15 is the 2nd of what I’m assuming is many sports franchises to be discussed. Finally a next-gen hockey game utilizing EA’s new shared code base structure. All 12 players have their own physics, as well as the puck. Player’s uniforms have mesh physics. Cool stuff. More detailed arenas, players and game presentation. Only a quick montage video. #wantmoar!

Criterion is up next. First words out their British mouths is “we’re moving beyond cars”. WHAT! Don’t do that. Their next game focuses on more than cars: Helicopters, Boats, ATVs, Jet Skis, Parachuting. Only conceptual footage shown, inspired by Youtube’s extreme sport’s nuts. Not really a lot shown, but essentially saying “hey, we’re working on stuff”. I wouldn’t be surprised if this game got called: Redbull Presents: GoPro – The Game. GUH!

Next sports title: PGA Tour 2015. It’s utilizing the Frostbite 3 engine, their tag: Golf Without Limits. Real courses and Fantasy Courses. No loading. Sending things off with a clip of a guy golfing off a tall cliff while a huge military battleship crashes into the islands. Pretty nuts.

More Sports – Madden 15. Making football defense fun again. They focused specifically on the defense half of the game. New context tackles, new camera angles to make it more exciting. Finishes off with a quick montage trailer. Only NBA (maybe) and def FIFA for the remaining sports titles. Whats next though?

Dawngate. Another MOBA game. With the popularity of League, this makes sense, from a financial perspective. Next.

DICE studio is up next with Mirror’s Edge! Is this a reboot or a sequel though? Focuses on Faith. Focused on fluidity of movement, seamless, and stylized. They want to focus on the story of the messengers. We get to see some conceptual footage, not true gameplay, but they reiterate with a quick developer diary of how focused and stylized the game will be, and how it’ll be a little more open for navigation, for different player skill sets. Loved the first title, excited for this new model. #dont_mess_with_faith

Nearing the end here…Quick montage of FIFA 15. Highlighting agility and control of the player, new player physics, and ball physics. The stadium is more alive, the pitch takes damage from wear and tear. New push and agility mechanics for the players. Football fans rejoice!

Last but not least: Battlefield: Hardline. EA and Visceral (DeadSpace) are out to showcase Hardline multiplayer. Its Battlefield Cops and Robbers, might as well be directed by Michael Bay. Added destruction, but its scripted. Level-ution is what COD called it in Ghosts. In this showcase the robbers take out an armored van, and need to escape from the cops. Tons of collateral damage. Looks very pretty, very much Battlefield’s engine. Highlight was the end of the fight where they blow up a crane which takes out the sides of two skyscrapers and acts as a bridge between the two. Definitely seems like a large map.

Hardline small beta announced today for PC and PS4. Available to play.

EA’s conference is done. 14 games mentioned. No mention of NBA. No Battlefront Footage, but they’re working on it. Nothing from Crytek.

Ubisoft is up next.

E3 2014 – Microsoft Press Conference

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Alright, here we go. E3 2014 is here.

E3 Microsoft

We start today off with the Microsoft Press Conference, where they’re promising 90 minutes of games. And they delivered.

We started off with a huge gameplay reveal for Call of Duty Advanced Warfighter. The game looked incredible. Very futuristic, kind of sci-fi. Very good looking and cinematic.Truly next gen looking, but with the same gameplay that we can expect from the franchise.

Next up we have the Forza guys from Turn 10 announcing the Nurburbring for Forza 5, free DLC, and then they brought out Playground Games to do a full reveal of Forza Horizons 2. 200+ cars, dynamic/ dramatic weather, and the Forza Drivatar tech is coming over. More open-world and seamless multiplayer.

Next up is a quick trailer for Evolve. More info released for it – a 2nd monster revealed: Kraken, 2nd group of hunters too. The game comes out later this year with 3 monsters and 12 hunters, and over a dozen maps. Always liked L4D, so this has my attention. #Excited.

Ubisoft and Assassin’s Creed Unity showcasing the co-op function. 4 player co-op missions. Not much said about whether this is throughout the whole campaign, or is this separate multiplayer focused missions. Assassins Creed 3 killed a lot of my love for the franchise. Hopefully my play through of IV reinvigorates me for when Unity comes out. Showed large outside environments which seamlessly transition into indoor smaller compact environments.

Moving along at a quick pace. 90 Minutes goes by quick when its all games… Bioware up next with Dragon Age Inquisition. Look Co-op too? Looks similar to an Oblivion. If it is indeed co-op I’d be down. But it is most likely like KotOR, where you can switch between characters in your party.

Next up, Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive which is incredible looking, and looks very fun to play. Very colourful. Breaking the 4th wall right off the bat. Insomniac knows what they’re doing, and what they’re good at. Starts off making fun of other games. Insomniac has always been known for their creative weapons, and we’ve seen a few to date: record launcher, dynamite teddy bear. Today we saw the Propane Tank launcher. Game showcases some very fast traversal, and announced an 8-player co-op mode. I believe separate from the actual campaign. Oct 28th, 2014 release. XBOX1 Exclusive.

Announcement of a 4 player arcade edition of Dead Rising 3, as DLC, $10. Looks crazy, super fast and competitive. Hyper stylized, and has a crazy name: Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha Prime.

Dance Central announce Spotlight and Disney Fantasia. Moving On.

Fable Legends is up next with a 4 player co-op D&D style game.  5th player can have a top down view and play as the villain, similar to a Dungeon Master. Unreal 4 Engine. Weird.

Microsoft’s creative game, Project Spark, looks.. creative. Announced a Conker pack, essentially saying we’re not gonna make another Conker game, go make one yourself.

Finally, past the mid point, wrapping up the announcements for 2014, getting ready for 2015, bring out Teh Halozz!.

Halo: Master Chief Collection announced Nov 11, 2014 release. Includes Halo 1-4. 100 Multiplayer maps, 4000 Gamerscore, all on one disc. Halo 2 gets the anniversary treatment with the original and classic engine, and all the original MP maps, with 6 re-created.

Also announced is Halo Nightfall, which is a digital series that leads up to Halo 5 Guardian. Halo 5 Beta multiplayer beta coming this Holiday. #RedvsBlue

From AAA to Indy. ID@2015, independent developers working hard with Xbox getting their games out. Ability to self publish. Lots of cool, quaint, stylized games coming our way. Ori and Blind Forrest stood out, and a Limbo-esq game called Inside. Quick montage showing lots of titles.

Next up, an actual genuine surprise, The Rise of the Tomb Raider. Just a quick trailer showing Lara in therapy discussing the events of the first game spliced with footage of her in the wilderness again, running from a bear and launching herself off a cliff wielding her rock climbing spike.

Witcher 3 is next up. Showing gameplay of an actual hunt. Our hero tracking a Griffon and the skills that are needed for tracking. Gameplay shows combat and how organic story elements get can be integrated, as the protagonist Geralt comes across a camp of baddies harassing a female herbalist. We’re shown some pretty gory gameplay. Tracking the Griffon shows some of the terrain and we’re told that any view-able location is traversable.

Microsoft has been blazing through this conference, no breaks, no breathers. No dancing in front of the Kinect, no stats, no hardware announcements, no Apps.

Tom Clancy’s the Division is up, nearing the end of the conference. The game is gorgeous, showing some of the new HUD overlays, GPS maps and highlighting enemies behind cover. Level design is so heavily detailed as we see the characters traverse the New York tunnel system. Game looks very much like The Last Of Us, as in we get the real impression this is post apocalyptic survival. Gun play gameplay shows some fantastic damage. Really impressed, but the game is still a ways out.

Almost last up, Scalebound. a Monster Hunter style game by the guys who made Vanquish. Very Japanese. Character can armor up as he’s in the middle of a monster battle. Puts his headphones on to rock out! Probably Presented by Beats By Dre.

Last but not least. Crackdown 3! Or Crackdown rebooted? Agency Co-op returns as we seen a couple agents trying to take down a baddie who is barricaded up at the top of his fortress tower. We see some new interesting destruction. Utilizing explosive to take down a couple buildings in domino effect as another agent drives a tanker truck wrapped in explosives up the side of the felled building into the fortress headquarters. Very cool, would be awesome if this turns out to be true gameplay possibilities.

That’s it, that’s all. Final montage shows what we’ve seen, whats to come. No big shocking closer, no Halo 5 cinematic, or news on Destiny, or Gears. But everything that we saw is next-gen, and looks great.

EA Press conference is up next. Stay Tuned