Social

Showing posts with label E3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E3. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Xbox: E3 2014

I flat out ignored E3 this year.  Sure there are a couple of games that I’m looking forward to but overall E3 turns out to be all hype and little substance.  And honestly, I can stand watching those presentations.  They are either boring, start LATE, or feature that oh so annoying Aisha Taylor.

Only games that have my interest and attention from E3 are Dragon Age: Inquisition and Assassin’s Creed: Unity.  But let’s be honest, those games had my attention prior to the conference.  I could care less about Halo 5, Crackdown, anything Nintendo, or space battles.  Oh hell, maybe I’m getting old but I prefer my games to have strong stories and not just be a rehash of the last iteration with new graphics.

I don’t anticipate my view on E3 changing for conferences to come either. 

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

E3: Preview Day Impressions

 

Firstly, congratulations to EA for being the only presentation out of the four to start on time.  Seriously, being punctual isn’t that difficult and there is zero excuse for Sony’s presentation starting twenty minutes late!

Microsoft presentation was by far the smoothest and most comprehensive one of the day.  There were no glitches, no background audio disturbances, and no incredibly annoying “hostess” (Aisha Tyler for Ubisoft) trying and failing to make bad jokes and sexual innuendoes every where she thought they might succeed.  Several games exclusive to the XBox One have my full and complete undivided attention: Ryse, Son of Rome, Project Spark, Dead Rising 3, and Quantum Break.  I am very much looking forward to using Smart Glass integration with console gaming.  It is also a huge hit here that it is an all-in-one comprehensive entertainment box that will allow us for the first time to ditch the cable box for good. 

EA presentation was informative, fast paced, fun, and showed off great game play while talking about technical advances.  Dragon Age III has my attention from EA, which was expected.  But quite a few things at the EA event looked interesting as well.  That brief teaser for a new Star Wars: Battlefront game had me drooling with anticipation.  Plants v. Zombies: Garden Warfare and Titanfall are both intriguing for very different reasons and I will undoubtedly play both.

UbiSoft conference was just awful.  It was more about Aisha than the games unfortunately, because Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag looks amazing and Tom Clancy’s The Division looks like it is definitely worth delving into.  South Park: The Stick of Truth will satisfy the nine-year old in all of us and I admit, I too will be playing it come this holiday season.  Watchdogs looks beautiful but the story premise may actually be a little too close to recent events to be enjoyable. 

Sony’s press conference was embarrassing.  Sony’s persistent need to troll Microsoft only showed their fear of being outclassed by the XBox One and their presentation was amateurish.  Oh I understand they wanted to solidify their fan base from being tempted away to the XBox One but unnamed insults and mentions were in extremely poor taste.  I am also stunned that anyone is naive enough to believe Sony’s claims that they are not going to have digital rights management on their games.  Please remember, Sony is the gaming corporation that was vulnerable to hackers and left millions of peoples personal information fall into the wrong hands.  Only The Dark Sorcerer looked at all interesting or compelling for games on the new console.  The other games presented were completely unappealing and uninspiring.  Sony and their game developers broke no new ground with any game presented last night as an exclusive.

Preview day presented some nice new titles to look forward to, existing titles expanding their franchises, and hardware that will make it all possible.

Monday, June 10, 2013

E3: Sony Press Conference: Releases, Hype, and Details

  • Exclusive PlayStation 4 releases:
    • Social media is important
    • Over 40 titles in development, 20 of which to release in the first year
      • 12 of those 20 are new IP
    • The Order
      • Exclusive to PS4
      • Looks beautiful
      • Seems to be a steam punk inspired game
      • Shooter
    • Killzone: Shadow Fall
      • Sci-fi shooter
      • Launch
    • Drive Club
      • Driving game
      • Launch
    • Infamous: Second Son
      • Photo realistic
      • Looks to have some inique gameplay elements
      • Second quarter 2017
    • Knack
      • Nothing inspiring
      • Launch
    • The Dark Sorcerer
      • Game play footage to demonstrate the emotional availability of the PS4
      • Very pretty and great facial expressions
      • A game I would definitely play
      • Demo tomorrow at 1 PM
    • The Witness
      • First to the PS4
    • Transistor
      • PS4 first
      • From the creators of Bastion
      • Highly stylized platformer
      • Coming in 2014
    • Indie developers will be able to self-publish their own content; games include:
      • Don’t Starve
      • Mercenary Kings
      • Octodad
      • Secret Ponchos
      • Galak-Z
      • Outlast
      • Odd World Inhabitants
      • Galaxy
      • All making exclusive console debut on PS4
    • Diablo 3 will have PlayStation inspired items exclusive to the PlayStation
    • Final Fantasy 15
      • Photo realistic graphics
      • Subtitled
    • Kingdom Hearts 3
      • 3D
      • Looks good
    • Final Fantasy 14
      • Coming exclusively to PS 3 & 4
    • Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag
      • World premiere demo
      • It doesn’t look any better than the Xbox One
      • Game looks fun
      • Demo is filled with environment, lots of sneaking and action
    • Watchdogs
      • Nothing new from the Xbox One press conference
      • Play the way you want
      • Different demo than this morning’s conference
      • Looks good
      • Reminds me of a modern day cross between Thief and Assassin’s Creed
      • Additional hour of gameplay exclusive to PS4
    • NBA2K14
    • Elder Scrolls Online
      • Spring 2014
      • Exclusive beta
      • Also coming to the Xbox One
    • Mad Max
      • Road warrior survival kit exclusive to PlayStation
    • 140 games in development, 100 available in first year
      • 40 exclusive titles
    • Destiny
      • World game play premiere
      • Beautiful looking
      • Reminds me of an MMO trying to be a multiplayer shooter
      • Instant access to multiplayer, aka public events
      • You can see the influence on Halo on the game
      • Exclusive partnership with publishers
  • PlayStation 4 Pricing, versions, used games, and miscellaneous:
    • Unveiled the PS4 hardware
      • It is very thin
    • Capitalizing on the whole of the Sony Entertainment family
      • Music, video, movies, etc.
      • New programming exclusive to the PlayStation Network geared to gamers
      • Music and movie unlimited available on day one for PSN, Android and Apple devices
    • It is trying to be an entertainment console like the Xbox One
    • No usage restrictions
    • Discs based
      • Don’t need to be connected online to play or to authenticate
    • Background downloading
    • Cross game voice chat
    • Ustream live streaming
    • PS Plus membership carries over from PS3 and Vita
      • New title every month for free
    • $399 price point, available this holiday season in US and UK
  • PlayStation 3 releases:
    • The last of Us
      • Releases this Friday
      • Looks amazing, a lot of positive buzz about the game
    • Puppeteer
      • Looks fun
    • Rain
      • Looks creepy
    • Beyond
      • Looks good
      • Spy, shooter type game with a female lead
    • Gran Turismo 6
      • Looks mediocre in comparison to next gen driving games announced today
    • Batman
      • Fall 2013
      • Looks phenomenal
      • Black Mask is the baddie
      • Exclusive content to PS3
    • Grand Theft Auto 5
      • Exclusive PS3 bundle available September 2013
  • PS Vita announcements:
    • Just beginning its life cycle
    • More than 125 dedicated games
    • Nearly 60% of all purchases are digital
    • The Walking Dead is coming to Vita
    • PS4 is designed at the system level to use the Vita – the ultimate companion device

 

E3: Electronic Art Press Event: Highlights, Games, and Hype

 

Highlights from the Electronic Arts Press Conference:

  • Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare
    • 3rd person action title
    • XboxOne first and then XBox 360
    • Co=op included
    • Sunflower is the healer class
    • Cactus is ranged
    • Live demo of the game on stage and it looks FUN
    • Definite must play!
  • Peggle 2 coming this year
  • Titanfall
    • Spring 2014
    • Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC
    • Multiplayer game with a single player feel
    • Living, breathing, world
  • Two New Engines
    • Ignite and Frostbite 3
  • Star Wars: Battlefront
    • uses Frostbite 3 Engine
  • Need for Speed: Rivals
    • uses Frostbite 3
    • Cops v. Racers
    • All Drive: destroys the line between single player, co-op, and multiplayer – One world for all experiences
    • races can start as single player and end in multiplayer
    • tablet integration included
    • Can play as cop or racer
    • Game play footage looks seamless and engaging between single player and multiplayer
  • Dragon Age III: Inquisition
    • OPEN world
    • Fall 2014 launch
    • Looks jaw dropping
    • Actual game play footage
  • NBA Live 14
    • Xbox One and PlayStation 4
    • Dribbling is the number priority – uses a new technology called Bounce Tech
      • ball is being released to physics
      • ball is separated from the hand in every dribbling animation
    • Live World with player stats: exclusive push within an hour after the NBA themselves receive the data push
  • Madden NFL 25
    • Xbox One and PlayStation 4
    • Actual game play footage
    • True step locomotion system – precise footwork
    • Lineman is the heart of game play
    • Ignite engine
    • Adrian Peterson revealed as the cover athlete
    • Launches Fall 2013
  • FIFA 14
    • Looks great
    • Uses Ignite Engine
    • 4 times more calculations per second
    • Fall 2013
    • Xbox One and PlayStation 4
  • UFC
    • Ignite Engine
    • MMAI System: fighters can organically alter fighter strategies during the fight
    • Full body deformation: shows what it is like when hit
    • Launches Spring 2014 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4
  • Battlefield 4
    • Frostbite 3 Engine
    • Air, land and sea battles
    • Commander mode: birds eye that impacts action on the ground
      • Console or tablet use
    • Battlelog: connect anytime, anywhere on multiple devices
    • live stream of battles all week during E3
  • Mirrors Edge 2
    • actual game play footage
    • Frostbite 3 Engine
    • No release or console information

 

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Vacation Over …

Well, our impromptu too vacation is over and rime to get back to reality.  Where did we go you ask?  To a universe far, far, away.  We both have resubscribed to Star Wars: The Old Republic and are loving it.  It is such a different experience than March when we last played mainly because my computer isn’t overheating anymore.   A couple of rig improvements and now my machine no longer contemplates torching itself when I fire up SWTOR.

Screenshot_2012-05-24_10_34_31_384617

Admittedly, part of the reason we’ve been MIA for the last ten days is that we’ve rerolled characters on a new server.  When we came back to the game our server was empty, not nearly as bad as some server stories I’ve heard since being back, but still the economy was non-existent and fleet never had more than 25 people at peak.  After a quick web search I found an excellent site for server stats in SWTOR and we reolled on Jedi Covenant on the Republic side.  Starting planets routinely have over 75 people per planet and we’ve seen well over 100 people on Coruscant.  The atmosphere is generally positive and players are excited about the game. 

In other gaming news around the web before E3 next week:

  • Star Wars 1313 details leaked ahead of E3, more details to follow at the convention
    • Launch delayed until July 3
    • Third Beta Weekend entitled “Hell Raised” is June 15-17
    • Fourth Beta Weekend is June 22-24 and players will get to experience PvP
    • Early Access begins June 29th
    • A new pre-launch Alternate Reality Game has been launched
  • Rift announced its first expansion, Storm Legion, set to hit a retailer near you this fall
  • The Elder Scrolls Online team has been talking and are unapologetic for bringing the series to the MMO format or for how they’ve structured the game
  • 38 Studios closed its doors, laid off the entire staff, and then revealed how close the MMO based in the Kingdoms of Amalur setting was to completion
    47510337658527385871148294161o
  • South Korea raided the local offices of Blizzard during an ongoing investigation of customer complaints concerning the inability of Korean customers to return Diablo III
  • Guild Wars 2 next beta weekend was announced June 8 – June 10