WOOOOOO it's time once again for the E3 rundown. Technically Konami was up first, with a brief 30 minute pre-E3 video, but frankly none of it was worth caring about. To briefly sum it up: they're putting Frogger on facebook, their soccer franchise is (surprise surprise) better this year, the Zone of the Enders HD collection will have better graphics and a new intro cutscene, and Metal Gear is celebrating it's 25th year by re-releasing its games and simultaneously crapping all over itself with MGS: Rising/Revengeance. It was seriously laughable to hear Kojima talk about how he initially came up with MGS in opposition to the action/shooting games out there and then have it emphasized by everyone else that MGSRR is an action game. As a final surprise they booted out a trailer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2. Unfortunately, as the first Lords of Shadow wasn't up my alley, I wasn't particularly enthused, but it sounds like many others are. So there you go.
So with that, we move on to the first of the big 3, Microsoft. Once again, right off the bat they hit with a gameplay demo of likely their most anticipated title: Halo 4. First I just have to say, as a testament to video game graphics these days, at first I couldn't tell if I was watching live actors or CGI. They are, I'm 99% sure, real, but it still kind of weirded me out that it actually took me a couple seconds to realize. Anyways, the demo showed off some rather impressive graphics, some new enemies and weapons, and a brief look at the story. To me, every new Halo game just looks the exact same, but I don't really count that against it. Especially since this is no longer the original company, Bungie, making it. They've managed to stay true to the style and feel of all the others, and I have no doubt Halo fanboys will be appeased.
Next up, another demo, this time for Splinter Creed. I mean, Assassin's Cell. I mean, Splinter Cell: Blacklist. That's the one. Honestly, I can't really blame Ubisoft for merging the two together. Both are their properties anyways, why not add some athleticism/building climbing to Splinter Cell? The whole "stealth" mechanic also seems somewhat done away with unless you count hiding behind a short wall for 5 seconds before blasting everybody to smithereens "stealth", but still, I can't really blame them for going in a more actioney/Hollywood direction as it frankly looks way more fun. They've also added some basic Kinect voice commands, since every big game from Microsoft is basically being forced to, but as with every other game while the features may not be essential or add anything to the gameplay, they won't detract either.
Speaking of, Madden and Fifa are getting Kinect support. Fifa will let you make substitutions and formation changes on the fly, as well as humorously capturing your reactions to referee calls. In Madden, for once it actually appears that Kinect integration is a time-saver. You can call out plays, receivers, and essentially be a quarterback, as they get Joe Montana to demonstrate. I'm not one for sports games, but even I can appreciate how that's pretty darn cool.
Fable: The Journey makes a brief return in the form of a trailer detailing that you use your hands to fling spells. It also did nothing to dispel their mistake last E3 of making people think it was on rails. They of course came out afterwords trying to dispel that, but while you may not be tied to a rail, from the environments they showed it sure looked like a lot of straight lines. It also honestly looked wholly unimpressive.
So to wash that taste out of our mouths they showed off a trailer for the new Gears of War: Judgment, which as you might expect was full of guns, monsters, and burly men and light on everything else. Then they quickly followed it up with the latest Forza racing game, which from what the guy was saying might be heading in a more Burnout: Paradise (i.e. openish world) direction. And one thing I will say for Forza, and racing games in general...they know how to make those games look stunningly gorgeous.
Back on the Kinect train we go with improvements to Bing voice commands, like being able to sort movies by genre as well as support for 12 languages. They've also taken another chunk of the movie space by partnering with Nickelodeon and Paramount, and of the TV space with full 24 hour broadcasting of all 4 ESPN channels as well as new partnerships with the NBA, NHL, and MLB. The NFL is still conspicuously absent, though in the ad they showed off the dude said "Xbox, Monday Night Football" and it played so I guess it just means you can still watch NFL content, there's just no special social/media features like they've added to UFC.
In the sports vein, Nike+ is also coming to Kinect with its own workout game. What makes it any different than all the other Kinect fitness games out there? Apparently not much in the technical side of things. You're still doing all the same workouts and such. However, they are sticking the Nike+ system on top of it, and adding social integration so you can find workout partners. So if you've been using Nike+ for other things and own a Kinect, this will likely be a boon to you.
Then the head of Xbox Live comes out and announces Microsoft is taking over the world. Essentially. With a new system called Xbox Smartglass, every one of your devices, be it smartphone, tablet or computer/laptop (and yes, even iphones) can be integrated with Xbox for additional content. Watching Game of Thrones? Your tablet pops up with a map of Westeros telling you where the scene you're watching takes place in the world, or information about the cast and crew. Playing Madden and want to play it like it was on a WiiU? Congratulations, your tablet is now a controller. Sorry, Nintendo, for once you're not so far ahead of the curve. Lost the remote? Your smartphone can now act as one. Along with this tech they're bringing Internet Explorer along, and for I'm pretty sure the first time IE is going to be the best browser out there (for consoles at least). Not only can you use a controller or smartphone to browse the web in a standard way, but you can also just use your voice through Kinect. In every way Microsoft is capitalizing on making the Xbox your central media hub, especially now that all your other devices can by synced to it. And frankly, I think that's pretty damn cool.
Last year's look at a new, more mature/gritty Tomb Raider was surprisingly awesome, and this new demo from further on in the game did not disappoint. It can't be denied how much like Uncharted it looks and feels, but let's be fair, Lara Croft was adventure platforming long before Nathan Drake was born. Uncharted just added the cinematic spectacle, which Tomb Raider has rightfully incorporated. This new Lara screams in terror more than any human could without losing their voice, but otherwise this new take on the long-running franchise looks to be the best yet.
Three quick trailers for exclusives dot the screen next. First, from the makers of Toy Soldiers comes Ascend: New Gods, which looks to be a hack and slasher in the vein of God of War. Then, Lococycle, which has something to do with a Tron-like motorcycle. And finally, from Gore Verbinski (director of Pirates of the Caribbean) comes Matter, which looks to put you in the figurative shoes of a Portal core taking on the viruses from Tron. I swear. Watch the trailer, that is literally what it shows. Of course, the sphere is not directly like the Portal cores, and the bits of data are not directly from Tron, but come on.
Next, out came Capcom to show off Resident Evil: The Quick-Time Event (aka Resident Evil 6). Seriously the most frightening part of that demo were how many QTEs there were. RE6 looks to, as it seems with many of the other sequels shown off, dial up the action at the expense of what it's known for (horror, in this case). The zombies showed almost no reaction to Leon's presence, letting him get right up close before even turning in his direction to try and bite him. And even then with the new mobility enhancements you can finally move and shoot at the same time, and do a ridiculous looking roll, which also took some of the scare out of it. It is, however, very possible that they just wanted to show off an action packed segment for E3. I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt and say that if you enjoyed 4 and 5, 6 will likely be right up your alley.
Kinect shovelware is for some reason trotted out as a game to be on the lookout for in the form of Wreckateer, an Angry Birds spinoff where instead of birds you have different types of catapult ammunition that you can direct by waving your hands around, and instead of pigs in structures you have goblins in castles. So if you ever thought "I wish I could play Angry Birds by flailing my arms instead of flicking my fingers!" then congratulations, Xbox has you covered.
Or maybe they just needed something crappy to make South Park: The Stick of Truth look all the more awesome. There wasn't much gameplay shown off, but everything looks and feels just like it does in the cartoon, and many of your favorite characters will be making an appearance. I'm not even much of a fan of South Park and I thought it looked awesome. Trey Stone and Matt Parker even made a brief appearance to throw down a great joke about Smartglass and talk about their involvement in the game. Can't deny, this one looks like a ton of fun.
Dance Central 3 will include old school moves, like from the disco era, as well as new. To demonstrate, Usher comes out and throws a surprise performance, showcasing the moves that will be featured in the new game and trying to get a crowd of gamers hyped about dancing. I myself am not a fan, but if you are then be happy because both the song he performed ("Scream") and one more that he worked with the dev team on will be in the game.
And of course, it isn't a Microsoft E3 without some Call of Duty. They showed off a demo for Black Ops 2, which looks to put a slightly futuristic spin on Call of Duty and...succeeds? They showed off a sniper rifle than can see through walls and the ability to tell some flying turrets where to shoot. Frankly it just looked like more Call of Duty. Even when a building collapsed in the background it was just kind of like "Well, seen that before." No doubt it will still become the number one selling game of all time, though. Why? I couldn't tell you.
And that's Microsoft! On to EA...
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