E3 Sony Press Conference Coverage

Next up on the list at E3 is Sony. Right out of the gate Sony does a great job at really dropping a bomb on the world with the announcement the makers of Heavy Rain are developing a new title. Not much is known about this title other than the trailer released at E3, but with Quantic Dream making this project it will sure to be nothing other than a smash hit. With Beyond: Two Souls you will play as Jodie Holmes and go through points in her life spanning 15yrs. But there is something very special about Jodie; she is surrounded by an invisible and powerful unknown presence that she talks to. In the video we see her sitting at a local police station not saying a word to a jabbering officer trying to help.  The officer later becomes frightened when the coffee mug he placed on the table is lifted off and thrown against the wall, and chooses to leave Jodie. Left alone she starts to interact with this supernatural being stating that she knew that SWAT was coming for her. Right after SWAT members start to storm the building and position themselves to try to capture Jodie. The door to where she is opens than the video than cuts to an amazing montage of what else is in store for the game. The video alone was enough to give me goose bumps.

E3 Predictions

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 1^st and 3^rd 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

Quantic Dream’s KARA is beautiful, but familiar

There has been a huge buzz surrounding Quantic Dream’s latest tech demo entitled KARA.  The video which is posted in this article is a true sight to behold.  Quantic Dream once again proves what can be done with graphics in a video game and more importantly shows that the Playstation 3 still has some serious potential in that department.  Graphics aside Quantic Dream also manages to pull some emotional heart strings in the 7 something minute video (like the original Heavy Rain demo).  I applaud Quantic Dream for their achievement with KARA and also congratulate them on the immense reception it is receiving, but the minute I saw this video I immediately thought of a super obscure Japanese Xbox game called N.U.D.E. @ (Natural Ultimate Digital Experiment).  I have never played N.U.D.E.@ because it was a japan-only Xbox title, but it looks like KARA and this share some similar attributes from the outside looking in.

Meet KARA

Meet whatever her name is

I am unsure if Quantic Dream drew inspiration from N.U.D.E.@, but the similarities in the character design are far too coincidental to be ignored.  This similarity does not discount what KARA is or could be, but I do think this comparison is worth noting and is why I am doing it.  Watch the KARA tech demo and I am going to keep my eyes peeled for this comparison to surface somewhere else.  Let us know what you think about the video by sounding off in the comments section and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

More woes for The Last Guardian

This game just can not catch a break.  The Last Guardian has been the victim of many delays and last month it was rumored that the creator of ICO (and Shadow of the Colossus) Fumito Ueda had left Sony to pursue other ventures.  Since that rumored surfaced things were looking pretty bleak for The Last Guardian.  However it has since been confirmed by many news outlets that Ueda will finish The Last Guardian and that the title is still in production.  Great news right?  I’d say so, until today.  According to a report on Gamasutra the game has lost its Executive Producer Yoshifusa Hayama to the social gaming company Bossa Studios.  The attrition rate of important figures surrounding this game is absolutely astounding.  Who are they going to lose next?  Hopefully no one, but at this point it is hard to tell.  With so much ambiguity surrounding this title to begin with it begs the question; is there something wrong with the production of The Last Guardian?  Is there trouble in paradise over at Sony?  These questions will be answered sooner than later I suspect.  Until then stay tuned for more news regarding The Last Guardian and as always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

PSN reduces device count…gamesharers beware

Sony announced this week that the PSN will be reducing the device count for PSN users from 5 down to 2.  The new change will go into effect November 18^th, but will not affect content that had already been downloaded prior to the 18^th (Hooray!!!).  This serves as a another major blow to PSN users because one of the major draws to Sony’s digital content was the ability to “game” share with either multiple devices you owned personally or with friends.  Sony must be getting some serious pressure from publishers in order to make such a drastic move (maybe digital sales are not doing so well?).  This news couldn’t have come at a worse time in my opinion especially with the biggest shopping season right around the corner.  It will not affect everyone who decides to purchase a Ps3 this holiday season, but for those who had plans of game sharing might become a little jaded.

The game sharing community is a strong one and this move by Sony will not be met with favorable criticism.  I know many PSN users that didn’t flee after the PSN attacks earlier this year exclusively because of the ability to game share and now some of them are thinking about spending their hard earned coin elsewhere.  I know game sharing isn’t the best thing for the industry for obvious reasons, but it was good for the gamer, mainly the PSN gamer.  So my only advice for those who are still game sharing, go ballistic over the next couple of days and scrap up anything you and your friends want while that “discount” is still sweet.

What do you think of this most recent change from the PSN?  Are you a game sharer that is being affected?  Let us know your sentiments about this in the comments section and stay tuned for more news.  As always you can follow us on Twitter @GamersAbstract and like us on Facebook for more content.

PSN has a Return Date

Its coming coming, back back, to Online Online

The PSN has been down since April 20^th due to a “data breach” and has caused distress amongst the gaming community.  Also according to a Bloomberg report I read it has cost Capcom hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue (I am sure they are not the only ones losing out).  But there is light at the end of the tunnel people (it will just take a few weeks to reach it).

Sony has announced that all PSN and Qriocity services will be fully functional by May 31^st.  This comes as good news to all even including myself who had previously said I didn’t care (which I still don’t, but would like to try out MK online).  This blackout has been pretty bad for those who had purchased games like Socom 4 day one and maybe had 24 hours to enjoy it before the servers went down.  Also PS3 DCU Online players have missed out on some valuable playing time (and when you are paying a subscription fee it stings even worse).  Things haven’t been great this month or last for Sony, but time has healed their digitally insecure wounds.

You get this free for a month

This has been low point for Sony, but all major players have their mishaps (Microsoft and the RROD, Nintendo and The Virtual Boy).  Also as a part of their “Welcome Back” program they are awarding a free month of Playstation Plus to all PSN users including those who already subscribe to the premium service.  Sony will recover and continue to deliver quality products, but one can only hope this incident doesn’t deter people from purchasing future Sony products.  This will go annals of videogame history as a major blunder, but Sony has the resources to leave this in their rear view and will hopefully do so.

PSN Outage, Things could be worse

Since Wednesday of this week the Playstation Network has been offline due to an “external intrusion” (a.k.a. We got hacked again) and serves as a major inconvenience for loyal PSN users and those who happened to have purchased Mortal Kombat, Portal 2, or Socom 4 this week (sorry folks).  People are genuinely pissed off about this and in some articles I have read people are demanding money for their PSN wallets or a free game as consolation for the PSN being offline.  I guess I am taking the outage a little better than most, because to be perfectly honest I really don’t care.

It only does 80710A06 - Penny Arcade

The PSN has always been a second rate service to me and I am not surprised that something as obnoxious as this has happened (remember the clock fiasco last year), but sitting around and making foolish demands will not light a fire under Sony’s ass to rectify the issue any faster.  While some things people were asking for were foolish, most just wanted answers and that I believe is a completely valid request for Sony to respond to.  Some of the questions that sought answers like “Were PSN users’ personal information compromised?” is a great question because I don’t want some hacker douchebag to know where I live and or have access to my other personal data; but to my knowledge these questions haven’t been answered by Sony (which is fucking lame).

The PSN is a free service to most of its approximately 70 million users, but does that make this situation okay to most?  For most it doesn’t sit well, but for me it does, because it an attempt to sound uber-cliché “you get what you pay for”.  Most factor in the price of the PSN into new titles they purchase or even factor it in to the price of the unit itself, but lets be honest people, it is a free service because Sony taxes the publishers instead of the gamers.  Which is moderately commendable on their behalf, but when something like this goes wrong they can take their dear sweet time because 99% (random statistic, don’t judge me) of PSN users don’t pay shit to use the service.  As for Playstation Plus subscribers, you have an argument because while you might not pay for your actual connection to the PSN you pay money for discounted content and other wonderful things provided via a PP subscription (I am a PP subscriber, but that is irrelevant at this point and I don’t want anything from PSN for the record, I am just speaking on behalf of others who might feel differently).  Those who have PP subscriptions should be given something in return for this inconvenience, but everyone else just needs to deal.

Like I said things could be a whole lot worse.  For example if your PS3 wouldn’t turn on or your games wouldn’t work at all (I know some PSN games are not functioning, but thankfully there are hundreds of games for PS3, so check some of them out), but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  Before I finish this up I will add a quick neutral segment saying that if this had happened to Xbox Live I would be complaining vigorously too (so please don’t chew me up Sony Fanboys), but also with that being said an Xbox Live outage would pretty much render the system useless.  So loyal Sony users keep your heads high and the dust will clear soon enough (well I hope so for you at least).  Stay tuned until next time and as always don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @GamersAbstract and on Facebook.  Also feel free to comment on how you think Sony should handle this “debacle” in the comments section above.

(I also found this Penny Arcade strip to be quite comical as well, check it out if you would like)

(http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/1261596481_3Fw2MnJ-L.jpg)

Mortal Kombat Demo Impressions

The newest entry into the Mortal Kombat series is nearly upon us and let me tell you it will be a great one.  Completely erase MK vs. DCU from your memory because as far as I am concerned that game should have never been made (A T-rated MK game, awful idea).  MK is returning to its roots and with the gore and brutality turned up to 11.  Everything about the latest entry screams nostalgia and brings back the classic MK aesthetic that we have all come to know and love.

The PS3 exclusive demo only offers a few different levels and 4 characters (Scorpion, Sub Zero, Mileena, and Johnny Cage), but they deliver enough variety to give you a great preview of the final product.  The graphics in the new MK are very good as well and really create the extra detail needed to visualize the ass beating you have thrown out or received.  Each character has unique “Kombat” damage that will show their deteriorating state over the course of a fight.  For example if enough attacks are landed on Scorpion his ninja garb will start to show hanging flaps of blood soaked fabric.  In Johnny Cage’s case an adequate ass whooping will result in him being completely drenched in blood (pretty amusing sight if I do say so myself).  The stages also look fantastic and will look very familiar to MK fans.

The most noticeable difference in the new MK is the return to a 2D fighting plane.  The last several installments tried their hand at a 3D fighting plane with some success, but it never felt like MK to me.  Also with the return to the 2D plane also comes the return of the stage fatality (which fucking rocks).  The demo features the return of the infallible spike pit as a stage fatality, which sealed the deal for me.  There is a video at the end of demo that showcases some more of the other stage fatalities and they are glorious.

Some other new additions include X-Ray Attacks and Extra Special Moves.  X-Ray attacks are MK equivalent of Hyper Combos from Street Fighter and deal out a very sizeable amount of damage if landed.  And the Extra Special Moves are just enhancements of regular special moves.  For example Scorpions Extra Special Harpoon attack shoots out 2 harpoons and has fire on them; pretty flashy.

I should probably talk about gameplay so here I go.  The game runs at a very smooth frame rate as to not hiccup the blistering action that is going down on screen.  If you like classic MK you will be right at home because that is how the characters move.  They fighting style of each character has been slightly updated, but like I said earlier this game is returning to its roots in terms of design.  This is a pick up and play fighter that will be accessible to all, but will also be very difficult to master.

Closing Comments:

I am really excited to see that Warner is letting Ed Boon and the other great folks at NetherRealm Studios do their thing with this new MK title.  This game has the potential to be a classic for both the franchise and the genre.  Also the Playstation 3 version is getting Kratos from God of War as a playable character.  Mortal Kombat will be hitting shelves on April 19^th for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.  Stay tuned for a full review once the game launches.

PS3 Importation Ban in Europe

As some of you might have heard LG filed a lawsuit against Sony earlier this year for patent infringement on their blu-ray playback technology.  I never thought that anything would come of it as Sony tends to dodge these kinds of suits or just settles out of court.  This time around Sony got bit in the ass and all PS3 shipments entering the UK or Europe are being seized by customs agents.  LG won the preliminary hearing regarding this alleged infringement and the confiscation will last for ten days.  The confiscation period has the potential to be extended by the courts and will surely impact Sony’s bottom line regardless of the outcome.  I do believe that credit should be given where credit is due, but for LG to wait this far into the PS3’s life cycle to file an injunction over hardware components is pretty grimy.  This will no doubt cost Sony millions of dollars when it is all said and done.  Hopefully this situation can be resolved quickly because the Ps3’s lineup this year is a force to be reckoned with and consumers should not have to suffer over corporate squabbles.

What do you think of LG’s course of action and do you think Sony was just trying to pull a fast one again against a competitor?  Respond in the comments section.

Killzone 3 Leaked

Just after news of a late PC build of Crysis 2 being leaked on torrent sites, Killzone 3 is now sharing a similar fate.  The European version of Killzone 3 has been leaked on torrent sites in both standard and 3D formats.  The standard format file size is around 22 gigs and the 3D version comes in at a staggering 42 gigs.  If you can’t wait an extra week or are just too cheap to buy it I’m sure you know where to look.