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Saturday, June 9, 2012

A Review of E3 2012


This year’s E3 had both high points and low points, but overall I found it pretty good and along the way I saw a few games that made me say “wow that looks amazing”. Microsoft kicked off the press conferences, followed by EA, but it wasn’t until Ubisoft that everyone realized who had stolen to show. Sony closed off day 1 and Nintendo introduced some more aspects of their new console “WiiU” the following morning. Since then I have been watching interviews with the producers during the expo and a few demos of games that were not shown on the big screens.


I will start off by talking about Ubisoft and their strong line-up of games coming out within the next year or so. Assassin’s Creed 3 is one game that a lot of people will be looking forward to. After great success with the previous titles, the designers decided to enter into the world of the American Revolution and follow protagonist Connor Kenway throughout a 30 year period. The game will have your basic elements from previous Assassin’s Creed games, such as running on thin platforms, sneaking around, jumping all over the place, and of course, assassinating people. One cool aspect I liked about the demos they showed were the ship battles at sea. Far Cry 3 is another title that is sure to get some attention from the public. You’re basically stuck on an island with a bunch of lunatics and you have to shoot your way through the game (or release tigers, only to kill them right after). The new Splinter Cell will be released soon and the graphics in this demo were jaw dropping (along with a few more games). I like how the Xbox 360 plans to use Kinect in this game. In one segment while hanging on a ledge, you can say “hey, over here” and your enemy will come towards the ledge. These games all looked great, but the two games that really got me excited were ZombiU and Watch Dogs. ZombiU will utilize the new WiiU controller as your survival pack that will help you throughout the game. What is interesting to me about this game is the fact that once you die…you die and the game is over. This makes you think quickly about every move you make, because if you don’t make the right one then it is all over. Watch Dogs was a huge surprise and is probably the game of E3 (Last of Us gives it some competition). The game follows Aiden Pearce, a man who has hacked into the ctOS and can control almost all the technology in the city. The game is in an open world and missions could be completed however you want (GTA like style). What is really great is that each person on the street is a unique individual with a specific personality. By hacking people, you can see their income, occupation, if they’re HIV positive, and a bunch of other things. I’m really excited for this game, but unfortunately it won’t be coming out until later next year.

Microsoft had some of the coolest things displayed during their press conference. No I’m not talking about Usher (I think he beats FloRida for weirdest performance, with all the crotch grabbing.), and no I’m not talking about Halo 4 or COD Black Ops 2 (both looked really good), I’m talking about the cool use of Kinect and introduction of “Smart Glass”. Kinect will be used more and more in games in the future, especially with its voice recognition. Bringing in legendary QB Joe Montana, we got to see how calling out plays in football could be done. This makes sure the user knows more about plays and gives more experienced football players an advantage. Furthermore, exciting advancements have been unveiled in the soccer gaming world. I really like how there will be some interaction with the refs in the next FIFA game. If you disagree with a call and swear a few times you might get carded (if the match you play is anything like Wednesday night’s basketball game, I’m sure you will get a few red cards). This could be bad if they start handing out red cards like crazy, but I’m pretty sure it would be kept under control. Imagine NBA games using this, with some players having a higher chance of getting a technical foul (let’s face it, Ron Artest will get a tech more likely than anyone else). One game that may have ruined its franchise by going all out on the Kinect is Fable. This game series was so unique because you could determine how your character would look based off of your actions in an open world with endless missions. Now you are on a linear quest, using only magic, and you are the main character. Check you the videos if you want, but the graphics seem crappy and I feel like it was unnecessary for them to completely change their style of game. Lastly I would like to mention Smart Glass, but in an attempt to avoid making this article way too long, you can read up about Smart Glass elsewhere; however the one thing I really thought was awesome was what Xbox will enable users to do with their mobile devices and tablets. Smart phones will be interactive with games you play or shows/movies you watch. For example, you can now draw up your own play in Madden games, or you can follow where everyone is in Westeros while watching Game of Thrones. Lots of potential here, but the one downside is that you probably need a Netflix (or other similar sites) account. The best part of all is that you can use your phone as a remote, because lets face it, we all lose our remotes.

Sony didn’t really mention anything exciting about their hardware like Microsoft, but they showed everyone that there is a strong array of games coming out soon. The new God of War has been highly anticipated by fans, and it looks like good old Kratos is back to kicking some mythological ass. Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale was played for a while and now I understand more so how the game will work. Basically you need to play towards a character’s strengths (stealth for Sly, melee for Kratos) to increase your meter. When your meter maxes you get to use a “super” (3 levels of supers, depending on how long you wait to use them) which are the only ways to eliminate characters. I didn’t really like this on initial hearing, but hopefully once I play the game it will change my mind, because I really want to fight with some of my favourite Sony characters! The game play looks good and the stages are very creative, combined from two different games. Playstation Vita users will also have the game available to them and they could join up with PS3 users and play on the PS3. After the demo, they revealed two more characters, Nathan Drake and Big Daddy. Then Sony decided to introduce their new invention called “Wonderbook”. I’ve never seen a more awkward, poor looking demo in my life. The game they showed was a “book” written by J.K. Rowling which teaches you spells, using the WiiMote, I mean Sony’s WiiMote as your wand to cast them. Sounds cool doesn’t it? If you are a very hardcore fan, then yeah, but the graphics are mostly yourself in the Sony camera in really low resolution, while the game play seemed really glitchy and low in quality. No more time spent on that, although they wasted way too much time in their press conference on it. Sony’s top exclusive games were Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls. Beyond is made by the same company as Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy, so the story will revolve completely on what actions you take. The story is about a girl (played by Ellen Page) and her relationship with a spirit. Apparently if you play the game a certain way you can find out “what lies beyond”. The game play footage from Last of Us was amazing. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and follows two protagonists, Joel (a chunkier Nathan Drake with Vlade Divac’s beard) and Ellie, as they try to survive. The game seems linear at first, but I just read that there was a 17 minute demo that was played during E3 and different events happened than in the one that everyone got to see during the press conference. Ultimately things happen depending on what actions you do. This game does not shy away from brutal violence, as the demo from the press conference ended with Joel blasting off another man’s face. This game could also revolutionize the second protagonist, as it was evident that Ellis has a big role in battles and finding clues. Naughty Dog really comes out with surprises all the time, and they have really come a long way. Starting off with Crash games, going to the Jak series, and making huge improvements on previous work with the best Sony series of all time in Uncharted, Last of Us will be nothing short of an excellent game.

Nintendo gave us a bit more info on the WiiU and introduced a few games that will be released once the console is out. Pikmin 3 was the game that highlighted the show, as Miyamoto talked about the game in Japanese. I never really was a Pikmin fan, but for those that are, this is the game you have been waiting for. After Miyamoto finished, Reginald Fils-Aime came out and delivered his usual unentertaining performance, filled with many forced jokes (the ubisoft host had a few forced jokes, especially female wood..come to think of it noone was funny except the South Park guys). The other games that have been announced so far are, Arkham City: Armoured Edition, ZombiU, New Super Mario Bros. U, a new Wii Fit and Nintendo Land. I’ll only talk about Nintendo Land from this group of games. As for the others, I already talked about one of them, one will probably have the most sales, one is a batman game, and the last is a 2D platformer (I hate 2D platformers with a passion). People initially had a negative reception about Nintendo Land, but I actually thought it looked really cool. It’s supposed to be the equivalent that Wii Sports was for the Wii, but for the WiiU…remember how fun that was? Alright it wasn’t the greatest, but what this game offers is some battles or events from old Nintendo games, such as Luigi’s Mansion and Zelda. The demos they’ve shown of Luigi’s mansion and the Animal Crossing mini-game both show the potential in the WiiU controller. Both these games allow for uneven play, that is you can play 1 vs. 4, but the 1 has a big advantage. For example, in Luigi’s mansion the 1 is a ghost who tries to make the others faint (you can see where everyone else is) and the others are trying to shine their light on the ghost to kill it, but they don’t know where the ghost is. The system has potential, but I worry about the bulkiness of the controller and when they will be able to reach the controller’s potential. Remember, the WiiMote, in my opinion, was severely under utilized until Skyward Sword, where whoever played that game finally realized how capable that weird looking controller really is. The 3DS announced the release of a few more games, such as a new Paper Mario, Mario Bros., and Luigi’s Mansion. Realistically Nintendo had a really lackluster performance, especially compared to its other two main competitors, but it also showed some promise for the future. By the next E3 I’m really hoping for a new 3D Mario game, but instead of going around a galaxy, I would rather be jump into picture frames (or something similar) if you get what I’m saying.

This is getting quite long now, but I’ll just throw out the names of a few more games that should be worth a look. A new Resident Evil is coming out (guess the number), if you’re into killing zombies…in China. Tomb Raider has been re-made if you wanna see a hot chick kicking some ass (the game looks legit). South Park looks very cool, as you create yourself to be the main character in the story line (I mean who didn’t wanna be in a South Park episode). Star Wars 1313, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Dead Space 3, Little Big Planet Karting, Avengers: Battle for Earth, and The Amazing Spiderman (he still swings with his web connecting to nothing) all look like solid games..

So from Usher and FloRide, to the Wonderbook (this has to be the worst first quarter of a sentence ever), to Smartglass, Sony’s games and Watch dogs, mixed in with Hitman’s trailer (watch it…I don’t know what’s more disturbing, the trailer or that the IGN Live screen looks like the girl from The Ring?), and awful jokes from Reginald Fils-Aime, this E3 was pretty fun and I had an excuse to watch footage and interviews from most of the games on here.

Games I will probably buy: Watch Dogs, Last of Us, Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, Sly Cooper.

What games are you guys planning on buying? Write some games you’re considering buying in the comments and I will get back to you with my thoughts.

1 comment:

  1. The new Spiderman looked awesome, and looks like the best spidey game since the movie based 'spider-man 2' came out. I am looking forward to buying that one

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