Another E3 has come and gone and with it some awesome new stuff to look at and some things we would have rather not seen.
Here at the TGA we are going to show you the top 10 the best things that you should look at and the 5 worst things from E3 2012.
Nintendo had big shoes to fill at this E3. All eyes were looking to Nintendo and what the Wii U was going to bring to the table. Most of the conference was spent on Wii U with 23 titles shown during the conference and little of 3DS as well. Let’s get down to business and see if Nintendo hit a home run this year at E3.
Out of the big 3 of press conferences Microsoft did not choose to step up to the plate. However, Microsoft had a very strong start and quickly gained momentum by revealing Halo 4 gameplay. Master Chief is in search of a ship that crash landed as it flew over his head. When the gameplay starts we were greeted with the trusted Battle Riffle (my favorite gun) and shortly after a familiar enemy, The Covenant. At this point I had yet to be impressed as Halo 4 seemed like it was just a graphically better Halo game, but quickly I was proved wrong as I saw new and interesting things. A strange red beam takes out the last Covenant as he disintegrates directly in front of you. As Chief pushes forward he as ambushed by a group of mechanical AI dogs. Once those are cleared another new enemy appears as well as a new gun. The new gun as equipped reminded me of something out of transformers and looked bad ass, Cortana recognizes that the tech is Forerunner. This new gun looks sick as does all the new Forerunner enemies. I was not sold on Halo 4 given that Bungie was no longer part of the project, but after seeing this at E3 I am sold on buying it. But don’t take my word for it, watch it for yourself and see.
With E3 beginning in just a few short hours we here at The Gamer’s Abstract would like to throw out some predictions for the major press conferences. Alongside those predictions will be stuff that is most anticipated and the biggest shocker announcement of E3. This will be written in the order of the press conferences themselves.
You will see the big heavy hitter first party titles here. Expect to see some new clips involving Epic Games new Gears of War title, and also more in depth with Halo 4. Microsoft will want to reinforce why gamers choose Xbox 360 above all else with the strength of their first party IP’s and how they have exclusive content first to the market. Microsoft will remind users that Xbox is the only place to get Call of Duty content first on the market and show some gameplay footage from Black Ops 2. Look to Microsoft to have a dedicated time slot to just showing off the Kinect. As always this might include a bunch of kids or adults doing silly things on stage in their 2 minutes of fame. Xbox 360 seems to want to become more and more integrated for being the only media device one might need for a household (cable, dvd, bing, ESPN, etc.) . It will come as no shock to see that Microsoft will announce further integration with the mobile market and moving more into a cloud based system. Microsoft wants to be like Apple in that all their devices will talk and communicate with one another. I do not anticipate that there will be any announcement or buzz for the new Xbox and will be absent from E3 until next year.
Sony may never outsell Microsoft but they do gain more and more ground with their IP’s each year. Look for videos of the new Assassin’s Creed, Sly Cooper 4, The Last of Us, The Last Guardian, God of War: Ascension, and the newly announced All Star Battle Royal. The Last of Us and All Star Battle Royal will be the highlight of the unreleased games during the press conference. The big push will not only reinforce why gamers choose the wide variety of exclusive games on the PS3 but will also focus on the Vita. Vita sales are less than what Sony would like them to be and gamers need a reason to go out and buy a Vita. I would recommend that Sony get Kevin Butler to do this segment as if anyone could get people pumped about buying anything gamer related it would be him. Expect Kevin to make an appearance at the conference and just like his appearance in 2010 people to be hanging on his every word. Vita will be seeing a price drop due to lackluster sales in the range of $50-$100. PS Move seems to be something that didn’t and still hasn’t caught on. Move will be mentioned but not to very much extent. Sony has been rumored in doing a strictly streaming based form of gaming sort of like onlive, I expect to see more details announced as to what exactly is in the works. With the PS3 still strong and the Vita in need of more sales it would not be smart for Sony to announce a new system at E3. I do not expect that this will be in the arsenal for Sony
All eyes are on the Big N this conference with buzz and hype all centered on Wii U. The name is here to stay as recent pictures of the tablet controller have the Wii U branded logo all over it. People want to know what it is, what the intended way to play this new system is, and what the recently leaked Rayman Legends trailer with Wii U means. (For those of you who do not know there was a trailer that showed putting action figures on the Wii U tablet controller and being recognized on the screen as an item, possibly game, or character. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSlccZt5O2o ) Consumers will see a release date of Early 2013 and no price point yet. There will be announced 1st and 3rd party games for the system possibly in the realm of Metroid, Mario, and Super Smash and how these games will work with the new tablet controller. Pikmin 3 along with the New Super Mario Bros 2 and the popular upcoming 3DS titles like Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion 2. And last as always we will be graced by the wonderful and charismatic personality of Reggie Fils-Aime. Who always manages to bore and annoy the crap out of me every E3 press conference.
With Predictions also comes the most anticipated already expected stuff that here at The Gamer’s Abstract are itching to know more about or can’t wait to see. Below is a list of what we here at TGA will be looking out for. Those things would be:
Castlevania DS and Lords of Shadows
Wii U (We want to know wtf this thing is)
Kevin Butler as always makes a great addition
Paper Mario and Luigi’s Mansion 2
Bioshock infinite
Resident Evil 6
Tomb Raider
Assassin’s Creed 3
The biggest shocker prediction to hit E3:
Valve will finally man up and announce Half-Life 3
What do you think will happen at E3? Post your comments in the section below and remember to follow us on http://www.facebook.com/thegamersabstract
E3 2011
Another June has come and gone and with that another E3. This E3 had its highlights, but most things that were announced were not much of a surprise because of either leaks or previously released details. Regardless E3 served its purpose by giving us geeks purpose for 4 days with constant videogame coverage. To keep this as organized as possible I’ll give my two cents for each major company in their own section. Also a small disclaimer, I am only commenting and reacting to what I have read or saw, so if I happen to miss something please let me keep my head.
Microsoft:
Microsoft usually comes strong with a bevy of great stuff and this year they had great stuff, just not an abundance of it. The Kinect had some highlights with the announcement of Dance Central 2 and Kinect integration into the forthcoming Ghost Recon title, but other than that it was a pretty quiet E3 for the Kinect. Microsoft leaked Halo 4 right before their conference so that took the wind out of their sails. More Gears 3 and Forza 4 coverage was pretty cool and also the revealing of the Gears branded console was awesome as well (I want it so bad, but must refrain). Microsoft also showed off the fall update for the Xbox 360 dashboard that will surely be interesting when it hits later this year. All in all Microsoft had a solid E3, but beyond Halo 4 nothing really blew me away.
Sony:
Sony had a great E3 and showcased more of the NGP, which is now called PS Vita. The PS Vita was given a price for the two available models and the 3G Carrier (AT&T) was announced (to the dismay of many). The Wifi model will go for $249.99 and the Wifi/3G model will go for $299.99. That price point is almost perfect considering what the device will be capable of doing so I am excited for the fall (…Uncharted: Golden Abyss…drool). The games that were detailed for the PS3 were things I had already heard about so I wasn’t too impressed, but I was happy to see that Sony has cemented a date for the Team Ico collection and announced another God of War collection bringing Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta to the PS3 in HD and in 3D. Sony has a good E3 outing and I am hoping that a prompt release of the PS Vita comes this fall season.
Nintendo:
Nintendo came out the gate this year with a huge announcement of a new home console entitled the “Wii U”. Continuing with the Wii branding Nintendo is looking to change the landscape of console gaming yet again, but I think they might be too ambitious this time around. I will reserve judgment until the system comes out and there are actual gameplay videos of titles running on the hardware (not just tech demos). But with that being said I think Nintendo is trying to cover way too many bases with their new home console. The Wii U controller looks like the bottom half of a DS and it looks cool in theory, but my biggest concerns lie in functionality and pricing. The controller boasts a 6.2 inch display in the center of the controller. That is only a few inches shy of your standard tablet pc screen size (and tablets are not cheap). In terms of functionality I just don’t see how the controller will be integrated properly to satisfy both casual and hardcore gamers, but only time will tell so I will not speculate any further. Nintendo has confirmed a lot of third party support for the Wii U so we will wait and see what 2012 brings to us. I didn’t see anything about the 3DS that interested me (mainly because I don’t own one) so I have nothing to say about its E3 appearance. Last thing I will say about Nintendo for this year’s E3 is that the Zelda HD demo looked really sweet so please Nintendo please turn that into a reality and you will have something truly special on your hands.
Closing Comments:
This years E3 was easier to follow than most other E3s simply because the bulk of what was detailed during the conferences was leaked or detailed earlier in the year (like I said earlier). The Big 3 had solid showcases for the futures of their respective brands and hopefully the rest of the year will drench us in more awesome games than anyone person can handle. Comment if you want to chime in about what you thought of E3 this year. As always thanks for reading and you can follow me on Twitter @GamersAbstract and on Facebook. Stay tuned until next time.
Nintendo has been rumoring a new console recently and the rumor has become fact. Project Café will become a reality sometime in 2012, but Nintendo will be showcasing a playable unit at E3 this June.
The new console according to IGN (which was told by other sources) will be “significantly” more powerful than the current powerhouse consoles the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. The also rumored “tablet” controller is apparently real as well and will be on showcase alongside the console at E3. Also Project Cafe will be backwards compatible with all current Wii software so kudos to the Big N for that.
This is very exciting news for Nintendo and the gaming community because we will now see what Nintendo can do with HD gaming. The Wii served its purpose with introducing a new way to play games and opened up several creative avenues for developers; but with that being said it also slammed the door on others because of hardware limitations. Project Café is brewing, but until we see it at E3 this June we can only speculate as to what it can do and will offer. Stay tuned for more Project Café news and as always follow me on Twitter @GamersAbstract and on Facebook.
The Gamer's Abstract 