E3 Low-down (main points of the conference)

[Heisenberg]

Your E3 Low-down

Slept through E3, missed it or not sure what you just watched? Got all the main points of the conference covered right here.

Microsoft: Entertainment Evolved

• Halo 4 gameplay and trailer show, with new enemy units, possibly Forerunners, new weapons and gadgets like a thermal visor. Lots of character development, especially between Master Chief and Cortana, as Cortana is past her AI "use-by" date and is starting to decay.
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist announced, based on a global terrorist threat. Features include amazing streamlined combat, Kinect voice recognition for distracting enemies or calling in airstrikes. Sam Fisher is able to move and take down enemies in a super cool fluid way once you master the new techniques like target painting and takedowns.
• Madden 13 and Fifa 13 will feature Kinect Voice recognition. If you swear at the ref, you get penalised! It also allows you to call plays and substitutes in real time, without having to pause the game for menu navigation.
• Fable: The Journey gameplay shown. First person Action RPG, Kinect exclusive. You have to use your body to defeat all manner of fantasy monsters while trying to "defeat the magic"
• Gears of War: Judgement teaser trailer shown, Baird is the main character. Prequel set 14 years before the original Gears of War. Back to basics gameplay-wise. Overrun is a new class based multiplayer mode similar to Horde mode.
• Forza Horizon shown, looks like it will feature street racing elements as well as the traditional tour car racing. A rally mode with impressive physics (particularly gaining air going over rises) was also shown.
• Bing voice search to come to Australia, will allow uses to navigate and organise their movies and music using their voice.
• Nike + Kinect Training is a revolutionary new method of fitness training that uses Kinect to judge your progress using the Nike score system and can send workout reminders to your phone
• Xbox SmartGlass allows you to integrate your Windows smartphone or iPhone with your Xbox to effortless transfer movies and music between devices. It also allows you to use your smartphone or tablet as a second screen during games and movies to provide information like maps or cast lists.
• Tomb Raider looks like the most gritty, realistic title in the series. Lara has some cool new moves like flaming arrows and attacks using scenery. Best mud physics ever! First DLC content will be Xbox Exclusive
• Ascend: New Gods, ultra-gory new fantasy IP from the makers of Toy Soldiers
• Matter, futuristic new Kinect Game with puzzles designed by the same guys behind the puzzles in Portal 2.
• Resident Evil 6 starring Leon Kennedy. Several vehicles were harmed in the making of this game.
• South Park: The Stick of Truth shown, starring YOU, the new kid. Promises to look just as "crappy" as a real episode of South Park!
• Dance Central 3 announced, has songs ranging from old school to teaching us how to Dougie. We get a performance from Usher.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Trailer shown. Alex Mason returns to stop an army of unmanned drones stolen from US control.

EA

• A Dead Space 3 trailer showed off some of the bigger, badder monsters you will be fighting in the latest installment in this spine tingling franchise. It also features drop in/drop out co-op mode, a first for the series. The game will also feature new locations, like a frozen Necromorph infested planet and the depths of space.
• Simcity for PC. Uses a new engine to produce ultra realistic cities. Features a high level of simulation, with individual pedestrians on the street. Multiplayer is included for the first time. Allows players to build multiple cities and connect them via airports and train lines.
• Battlefield 3 Premium is a paid membership service that gives users access to unique items and early access to 4 future map packs.
• Medal of Honor Warfighter has every mission linked to a real world event in different countries all over the world. Gameplay of a mission set in Somalia was shown. The graphics look almost photo-realistic. Also featured was the impressive mission-based multiplayer mode.
• A Crysis 3 trailer and gameplay was shown. The setting is described as a blend of Crysis and Crysis 2 - an "urban rainforest". It'll be more of a sandbox shooter than the last game and the graphics look very impressive. The game now features a bow as a weapon.
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted was officially confirmed, to be available later this year on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS Vita, iOS and Android. Gameplay is more open-world, with players with the freedom to choose where they want to drive.

Ubisoft

• Flo Rida and dancing girls. That is all.
• A Far Cry 3 trailer and gameplay was shown - critics are describing it as a typical first-person. Become one with the Island. The trailer is very atmospheric in both stealth and war. It'll feature “an entire archipelago of islands to explore".
• Splinter Cell: Blacklist – Following on from the Microsoft Press Conference, shown was a cinematic trailer of Sam Fisher infiltrating a terrorist cell and rescuing a hostage, then the proceeding escape.
• Showed cinematic trailer for Avengers: Battle for Earth, no actual gameplay was showed, but it looks promising. Showed a massive battle in the city, with some Spiderman and X-Men universe added in. Trailer looks great with a real comic book feel.
• The new Rayman Legends for Wii-U. You can play with up to five people and use your Wii remotes at home. The game even adventrues a Guitar hero-like gameplay experience to navigate through some levels, where the player taps items of the scenery along to the song on their GamePad to navigate the character (Cool!).
• Showed a trailer for the survival-horror zombie FPS M15+ rated game (American rating) EXCLUSIVELY for Wii-U called Zombi-U. No gameplay was showed.
• Other short game trailers for Wii-U titles including Rabbids Land, YourShape: Fitness Evolved, Sports Connection and Just Dance 4 all using the GamePad and controller in different ways.
• Assassins Creed III will be based around 30 years of the American Revolution. The new assassin Connor will be surrounded by historical figures like George Washington. Some PS3 gameplay was shown hunting a deer for a mini-game challenge. The gameplay is more organic - with the new assassin navigating a path along enemies, tree branches and rooftops with ease. The enemies are still the templars (even though history would suggest it's the British), but you will face enemies on both side of the war. The game also features new weapons.
• Some of the world's biggest Counterstrike players versed eachother in ShootMania Storm - Ubisoft's upcoming fast paced FPS (a part of the eSports genre). You can register for the beta on ShootMeNow.Com.
• They announced a NEW third-person shooter surveillance IP: Watch Dogs. The game focuses on a computer controlling the city and asks the question ‘who controls the computer?’. RPG in style, open-world in nature, follows a a guy named Aiden Pierce who can manipulate all communications systems and "hack" anyone to navigate through the game. Trailer reminds us of GTA meets Deus EX meets TV Person of Interest.

Sony

• Beyond: Two Souls is an RPG that uses realtime 3D to create an ultra realistic experience. The game follows Jodie Holmes, who feels a link with an invisible entity - something that lives between our world and the other side. It follows 15 years of her life. Jodie is voiced by Academy Award nominee Ellen Page (star of Juno!). More will be revealed in the coming month. Made by the creators of Heavy Rain. There's still a lot unanswered about the actual gameplay.
• Playstation Allstars: Battle Royale sees some of Playstation's best characters fight eachother in a Mario Supersmash Bros-type game. It'll be available for Vita and cross-compatible with PS3. The goal of the game is to have the most amount of points by performing super-moves. Each character has a different approach to the game. Characters are from games such as God of War, Ratchet & Clank, Nathan Drake, Bioshock, Fat Princess, Sly Cooper & more. Features a mixture of graphic styles from each game as you can imagine.
• More than 200 digital titles are coming to the Playstation Network over the next 12 months.
• Vita news: PsOne classics will now be available on Vita - including Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy VII. Hula+ and Crackle are also coming to Vita soon, alongside with Youtube which was announced earlier in the year. There will be the first Crystal White Wifi Vita. It will be available as a bundle with AC3 featuring a 4GB memory card.
• Ubisoft's AC3: Liberation for Vita will also be available on Vita with the first-ever female assassin. It's been built specifically for Vita and is open-world with touch controls. You can link it to the PS3 title to unlock DLC.
• AC3 for PS3 will feature gameplay on land and at sea. New assassin Connor will captain a ship, taking battle to the high seas. From the gameplay, the graphics at sea are very impressive. It'll launch day one with a PS3 bundle and exclusive DLC.
• Far Cry 3 will feature four-player co-op. You can also build your own Far Cry with a map editor.
• They announced Wonderbook for PS3 using Playstation Move & Playstation Eye - an augmented reality experience. It uses an interactive "book" to create education and scientific experiences and stories for children and their families. Book of Spells is the first title to be produced for WonderBook, created by J.K. Rowling and a result of Sony's partnership with Pottermore. It features new exlcusive writing by Rowling, and lets you cast spells just like Hogwarts student in puzzles and challenges. Players will use the Playstation Move controller as a wand. Diggs Nightcrawler is an IP film noir-inspired title for Wonderbook by Moonbot Studios.
• Playstation Suite will be renamed to Playstation Mobile and bring gaming to Android and smartphones. HTC will be the first non-Sony partner to join.
• God of War: Ascension will be out next year. Brutal game as usual, typical of God of War series. Official release date announced for US.
• Gameplay of Last of Us shown. Fantastic graphics, wonderful physics in the character movements. Still a very Uncharted meets 28 Days Later vibe to it.

Pretty good E3 this year but as it was reported there was no GTA which is a shame. Also, the Halo 4 vision is called "Forerunner Vision." It will be incorporated into the multiplayer. The enemies MAY be the Precursors, should be so interesting!

For the videos of the conferences, click here: http://wrestlingsmarks.com/forums/t25234/

 

[Ryan]

So far, Forza has me the most excited. I read what IGN had to say about it and apparently there will be off road as well as on road tracks and FINALLY they will be incorporating night racing with some sort of dynamic day/night rotation. I was nervous that the series would become like NFS and be arcade like in it's controls but apparently the physics will remain the same and it will, indeed, be a sim. I'm a huge PS3 fan, but Forza has the racing genre on lock down. No one makes racing games as good as the Forza series.

Believe it or not, I also got kind of excited for the South Park game. The trailer made me laugh and it looks like it'll be very true to the show, but I'm not willing to pay $60 for that.

I'm sure God of War will be beautiful, but how much better looking than GOW 3 can it get? I mean that game was stunning.

I'm still holding out hope that Rockstar makes a surprise appearance and talks a bit about GTA and Agent although I think the chance of that happening is basically less than 1%.