E3 2012 - Part 3: Sony's Press Conference

All eyes are on Sony to pick up their game after a massive FAIL year with very few quality games from major developers outside of Uncharted 3 and a few downloadable games and after a devastating network breach that resulted in a massive loss of revenue.  Sony needed to bring their A-game to this event but the result was, honestly, less-than-impressive, with the exception of two games: Beyond and the Last of Us.

The event opened with a new ip from quantic dream called BEYOND: Two Souls that actually stars Ellen Page.  The trailer was spectacular with movie-quality animation was so stunning that I was lost in it.  The stunning trailer speaks for itself and showcases the amazing technology that lies in our future.



After that impressive showing we got a rather underwhelming demo of Playstation All Stars: Battle Royale, a Super Smash Bros. clone that features popular Sony characters including Kratos, Sly Cooper, Sweet Tooth, Fat Princess, Nathan Drake, and Big Daddy.  Using regular attacks, players build up power to perform a super attack that scores points when they hit othaveer players.  This is the key to victory.



We then got a series of upcoming downloadable games for the PS3 and Vita through PSN, as well as some upcoming features for Playstation Plus.  Sony also made a point to push the first and third-party entertainment services available on PSN and Vita as well, including YouTube, Hulu Plus, Crackle and more.

Following that time sink, we got previews for Call of Duty Black Ops: Declassified as well as Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, a tie-in for the Vita that features a female assasin.  We then saw more form Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 3 (more filler, really).



Playstation Move was also heavily pushed, with emphasis on using to enhance gaming for the player.  To achieve this, Sony announced a new feature that uses Move to interact with books.  It is an augmented reality program that uses the Playstation Eye called Wonderbook.  You place a special book on the floor before the camera, the game then overlays interactive elements onto the screen as if they are in the room with the player, coming out of the book.  The principle game on display was from a collaboration with Harry Potter-author J.K. Rowling called Book of Spells wich integrates Wonderbook with Playstation Move in which you use the Move controller as a magic wand and interact with the story.



God of War: Ascension keeps the same ultra-violent action the series is famous for on a much grander scale.  However, the gameplay shown was rather lacklustre.  It looked nice, but it didn't appear to be any different that what we've been playing for seven years.  I was rather disappointed.



Sony closed the event with some polished gameplay footage of their new AAA title from Naughty Dog, The Last of Us.  The game looks incredible.  It certainly lives up to its pedigree.  The stunning city scape, flooded and overgrown seems so desolate and so lifeless, yet so beautiful.  The action gameplay is a step up in the violence department from their previous games and the title definitely seems to be aiming for a more mature audience.  It looks impressive and was definitely the highlight of the Sony press conference for E3 2012.  I'm surprised Sony had the nerve to show up with no actualy real footage or news about the new Sly Cooper or the Last Guardian, both of which were AWoL during the press conference.  Still, we'll see what the coming days shall bring.



Okay!  I shall return tonight for the Microsoft press conference.  Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for all who have been reading!

E3 2012 - Part 2: Ubisoft Press Conference

Ubisoft had a strong showing today at E3 2012.  They opened with a title we expected (Let's Dance 3) in a rather unexpected way.  Hip-hop star Flo Rida rapping while sexy babes dance and the game fills the screen behind them.  It was definitely bombastic.  While I'm not all that excited about Let's Dance, what Ubisoft had in store for us following that display... Wow!

Farcry 3 gave an impressive showing this year.  The distinctly NSFW trailer/demo shows the game to be a strong, gorgeous entry into a solid action series.  The island motif is amazing, with stunning graphics throughout. This is going to be a good one.  I was impressed by what I saw, and it only got better from there.  We then followed that up with a teaser for the new Splinter Cell title Blacklist, which looked great.

We then saw Ubisoft's first implementation of Wii U with Rayman Legends, a fun-looking co-op platformer that uses the different Wii U controllers to manipulate the different characters.  Following that up was ZombiU, and though all we got was a teaser, it was a good one.  Showing a moment frozen in time spread all across the city of London at the height of a zombie attack.  We pan through blood splatter frozen in the air and a car frozen  in time as careens off the London Bridge.

Moving on, we all expected the new Assassin's Creed to be good, but what was showing on E3 sets the bar so much higher than before.  From the captivating opening trailer to the beautiful gameplay footage, Assassin's Creed 3 did not fail to please.  The audience erupted in excited applause as we watched our new hero Connor glide through a frozen forest and infiltrate a British camp in the heart of the Revolutionary War.

Ubisoft also gave us a glimpse of what they have to offer in the world of social and online multiplayer gaming in the form of Shootmaina and Ubisoft Worlds.  Shootmania is an online multiplayer experience that is Ubisoft's entry into the online competative shooter world dominated by Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2.  Ubisoft Worlds Online is a combination of new smaller IPs and free-to-play game experiences available as part of an online community.  The games shown included a 2D motocross game called Trails Evolution and an online version of their classic Settlers series.  The showcase game in this run was Ghost Recon Online, a free-to-play multiplayer shooter that looks like a AAA title.

Last, but far, far, FAR from least was the official reveal of their new IP, Watch_Dogs.  Set in the not-too-distant future where everyone has a digital footprint, you take control of a man who has the ability to hack and manipulate virtually every single piece of technology around him as everything in the city is run by a central computer.  During the gameplay demo we see our character jam all cellular communications around him to create a distraction to sneak into an exclusive event.  Countless icons representing computer cameras and things that can be hacked populate the scene, giving a number of options on how you can apporach any scenario.  Scanning nearby people reveals their information, as it's all at your fingertips.  You can see their age, their jobs, and their darkest secrets, all gathered from their digital footpring.  The traffic lights are hacked causing a massive pile up, all as part of the core gameplay.  This is one amazing-looking game.  The character models are amazing and the lighting is unbleievably realistic this is way on-par with, if not better than, Naughty Dog's best work.  This is going to be one of the ones to keep your eyes on people!

E3 2012 - Updating: Ubisoft - What They Need To Do!

Ubisoft is still young compared to most other A-list developers and built their house on Rayman.  Over they years, however, they grew up and made some of the best games of the 2000s, including Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time.  Their list of AAA titles is comparatively small, but the titles they do own are so huge that they may not have as many guns, but damn are they big ones!

As far as Ubisoft's press conference goes, what do they need to do?  The need to show us some games.  There is a rumor that they are going to go the direction of Skylanders and  make a tie-in line of "toys" to go with a new game.  This is bad.  Don't go there Ubisoft.  We want games that are ready to play and that are exciting. After the very poor showing with the recent Prince of Persia game, they really need to bring their A-game.  I would like to see a new Tomb Raider that lives up to the popularity.  I rather liked Tomb Raider: Legends and would love to see a new game along those lines.  Also look forward to more on the new Assassin's Creed, taking place in Revolutionary War-era America.  We shall see what surprises they have in store shortly when their press conference begins.