E3 2012: Sony Press Conference Wrap-Up

If there was one word to describe what Sony’s Press Conference was all about, it wouldn’t take me long to tell you what that word is:

Games.

Lots of them. Sony has a huge lineup this year spanning from The Last of Us, to God Of War Accession. That does not include a few surprises as well.

Sony opened up with a showing off the latest work from Quantic Dream (makers of Heavy Rain) a game titled Beyond. Beyond follows a young girl who appears to have some kind powers that are beyond (no pun intended) this world. It’s a game that is about what goes on after you die and the mystery behind it. Not much detail was given about it however, it looks very, very good so far.

Sony also showed off a title that has been rumored for months called Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale. This game will be familiar to nearly all gamers as it’s basically a Super Smash Brothers clone only this time using Playstation characters. Two new characters were announced at the end of the demo. Fans were excited to see Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series and Big Daddy from Bioshock joining the lineup and were actually playable at Sony’s E3 booth.

Playstation Plus+ subscribers were happy to hear that Sony planned on offering 12 games for their members this month alone. The Playstation Vita promised a lot of innovation with promise of more cross-platform play on future games, and upcoming releases like Battle Royale, Assassin’s Creed 3 Liberation, Call of Duty Black Ops Declassified, and Playstation One Classics as well. The Playstation Move was shown next with a new title that is sure to be a hit for kids called, Wonderbook. This game takes the imagination of books and brings them to live on the Move.The big announcement though with Wonderbook was the inclusion of The Books of Spells which is content inspired from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels (which if you don’t know is the best selling book series of all-time). Kids will be very excited for this one and Sony let them have the stage for quite awhile explaining what they wanted to do with Wonderbook and The Book of Spells.

Sony moved away from the Move and Vita following that and got right back on the Playstation 3 and announced a game that we all knew was coming: God Of War Ascension. It’s a prequel to the other God Of War games in the series. Kratos never looked so good. The game releases in March of 2013 and will surely be on everyone’s must purchase list.

Finally, Sony showed off what arguably was the best game at the E3 show: The Last Of Us. The game being developed by Naughty Dog looked so good that they didn’t even have to say anything once the demo was completed; they just walked off the stage like a couple of bosses. It was simply superb. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that The Last Of Us is probably the best upcoming Playstation3 title at this moment.

While Sony didn’t have an announcement for a next gen console, their idea was quite clear. Sony’s main premise this year and for the coming year was games. They plan on entertaining the gamer and keeping them playing by releasing top notch games, exclusives, and content for their PS+ subscribers. The future looks very bright for Playstation fans and it will be exciting to see how all of these awesome games turn out once they are released.

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E3 2012: Nintendo’s Press Conference Wrap-Up

As you all probably know, Nintendo was coming in strong into this year’s E3 with its soon-to-be-released Wii U as well as game announcements for it. While they did reveal some of the console’s feature on Sunday, the emphasis during Nintendo’s conference was a lot more of the games. Here is what they had to present.

The press conference started in Miyamoto’s dressing room, in which Pikmins were moving around, only to have one of them fall into the famous game designer’s vest front pocket. After talking a bit about the Wii U Game Pad, Miyamoto officially unveiled Pikmin 3. Coming to the Wii U in the near future, this title is improving on the same formula while still adding a few new additions such as a reworked camera, new types of Pikmins (including the Rock Pikmins), the ability to control up to four leaders at a time, a replay function, and the use of the Wii U Game Pad to see the game’s map.

Nintendo of America’s Regis Fils-Aimé then jumped on stage to present some information about the Wii U. First of all, many entertainment options will make their way to the console such as Amazon Video, YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu. These will all make use of the Wii U Game Pad additional screen. It was also confirmed that unlike what was previously announced, the Wii U will support up to two Wii U Game Pads at the same time. However, Nintendo of America tweeted that this feature would drop both of the controllers’ framerate down to 30 frames per second. In addition to this, it was confirmed that the peripheral would include a stylus for added precision, rumble, a built-in microphone, a headphone jack as well as a dedicated volume control slider.

We then got our first official look at New Super Mario Bros. U, a 2D Mario launch game for the Wii U. Just like the precedent title launched on the Wii, this new game will feature four-player Coop, Miiverse support allowing players to post messages on the game itself (as shown in Sunday’s surprise press conference), as well as the Boost mode which allows a player using the Wii U Game Pad to place blocs around levels to help the other players out.

This was followed by Warner Bros. Interactive’s Martin Tremblay who presented Batman: Arkham City – Armored Edition. This port of the popular superhero game launched last Fall will add Wii U support through the Game Pad by allowing the players to unleash special moves through it (called the BAT mode), access Batman’s inventory, look at the game’s map, as well as reading more information on the game’s characters. The port is developed by the newly opened WB Montreal studio. Then, Scribblenauts Unlimited was also announced. The game will take the popular gameplay from previous games and add an item creation mode (that can be shared with other players), a brand-new multiplayer mode as well as a new story mode.

A short montage was then played to present some of the other third-party titles currently in development for the Wii U: Darksiders II, Mass Effect 3, Tank! Tank! Tank!, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Trine 2: Director’s Cut, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, and Aliens Colonial Marines.

Reggie then took place its spot on stage to talk a bit about Wii Fit U. The game will make use of the Wii Balance Board as well as the Wii U Game Pad to bring gamers more fitness possibilities than ever. The new Fit-meter (which is basically a pedometer) will allow gamers to make their real-life activities count by transferring their steps count into Wii Fit U.

This was followed by another short clip to present SiNG. From the makers of DJ Hero (Freestyle Games), this new karaoke title will make use of the Wii U Game Pad by having lyrics show up on it as well as funny challenges for everyone in the living room to execute.

The focus then shifted to the 3DS with some brand-new titles. It all started with New Super Mario Bros. 2 which will be “all about the Gold” and will include the return of Super Mario Bros. 3’s Power Meter. The game will be launched on August 19th. Paper Mario: Sticker Star was briefly shown and will feature new clickable stickers that players will be able to collect and use afterwards. The game will be available both physically and digitally this Holiday. A little bit of gameplay for Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon was then shown, showing some new ghosts that Mario’s brother will have to face. The game will be available this Holiday. They ended this 3DS specific segment with a short montage showing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate, Disney Epic Mickey: Master of Illusion, Scribblenauts Unlimited, and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

After that, a new LEGO game was presented. Taking place in an open-world city and featuring a kind of Grand Theft Auto-like game for kids gameplay, LEGO City Undercover will make use of the Wii U Game Pad to allow gamers to get information about what is going on in the city itself. This title will be available for both the Wii U and the 3DS.

Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot was then invited on stage. The first game to be shown was a new entry in the popular party dancing franchise Just Dance with Just Dance 4. With this fourth title, the Wii U Game Pad will enable a non-dancer player to choose choreography moves that players will have to execute as well as some other fun options such as asking players to “strike a pose” for as long as he wants. A little bit of information about ZombiU was also presented in a short trailer. Players will be able to use the Wii U Game Pad as an inventory selector, a scanner, a sniper scope, to push enemies away, and to hack doors. It will also feature a small “zombifier” photo application, allowing you to zombify yourself or your friends. The Ubisoft segment ended on a short montage presenting other titles that are in development for the Wii U at Ubisoft: Assassin’s Creed 3, Rabbids Land, Yourshape Fitness Evolved 2013, Rayman Legends, Sports Connection, and Avengers: Battle for Earth.

Nintendo’s press conference ended with the announcement of Nintendo Land. Coming to Wii U on the console’s launch day, this sort of mini-game collection will feature a huge theme park filled with 12 Nintendo-themed attractions including The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, Animal Crossing: Sweet Day, Donkey Kong’s Crash Course. The first mini-game that was shown was Luigi’s Ghost Mansion, which basically is a hide-and-seek mini-game in which a player playing on the Wii U Game Pad must get away from other players (using Wiimotes) to attack them using stealth.

That’s it! Stay tuned to That Gamer Hub for more of our E3 coverage this week!

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Cross Border Gaming #112c: E3 Special - Part 3

Yet, another day of E3 coverage continues as Frank & Harold are joined by TGH’s own Matt for the afternoon show!  Recorded right after the Nintendo E3 press conference.   We discuss and summarize the events of the Nintendo Presser.

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Nintendo E3 2012 Press Conference

Nintendo is coming to Los Angeles with a new console to officially unveil to the public with more details: the Wii U. They also have a few titles to present like Pikmin 3. Even better: the big N usually have many tricks up its sleeves such as surprise game announcement. We will bring you all the scoops on Nintendo’s press conference as it happens starting at 12:00pm East / 9:00am Pacific.

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Ubisoft E3 2012 Press Conference

Ubisoft is coming to E3 this year with a good list of great titles such as Assassin’s Creed III, Far Cry 3, Rainbow Six Patriots, Rayman Legends, and possibly Beyond Good & Evil 2. We will bring you updates of Ubisoft’s press conference as it unfolds starting at 6:00pm Eastern/ 3:00pm Pacific.

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E3 2012: Microsoft Press Conference Wrap-Up

Microsoft came in this year’s E3 with very few new things under its belt: Halo 4, Forza: Horizon, Fable: The Journey, as well as a bunch of rumours about a new Touch interface as well as a new Gears of War game. Here is what Microsoft really had in stores for their pre-E3 press conference.

The presentation began with a live demo of Halo 4’s campaign. First starting with a live-action intro (a first for the franchise), this demo showed the game’s beautiful-looking graphics and gameplay which look like more Halo for the fans. We were also shown new weapons (including the Light Rifle) and moves that the players will have at their disposal when the game launches on November 12th.

Then, the first gameplay demonstration of the new Splinter Cell: Blacklist was shown. The action took place in an Irak-looking setting and in broad daylight. We saw the return of the Execute system which looks even more powerful than it was in Splinter Cell: Conviction. The game will also make use of the Kinect voice command feature, enabling players to distract guards by yelling at them (feature that was included in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory with regular microphones, by the way). The game will be released in Spring 2013.

EA Sports games were then presented. It was confirmed that both Madden 13 and FIFA 13 will make use of the Kinect voice command feature, allowing players to make play changes on-the-fly without interrupting gameplay. Madden’s voice command support looks specifically good, allowing you to call plays like a real quarterback does.

Multiple trailers were then shown for multiple games: Fable: The Journey, Gears of War: Judgement (launching next year), and Forza: Horizon (launching on October 23rd).

The press conference then moved on Xbox Entertainment. It was confirmed that several new languages would be added to work with Xbox’s Bing Search function. Multiple new Apps were also confirmed for the Xbox 360, including NBA, NHL CenterIce, TwitchTV, Machinima, and many others. Xbox Music was also unveiled, which acts as a sort of iTunes service for Windows LIVE users (and will work on the Xbox 360). The new Nike+ Kinect Training App will also hit the Xbox 360 later this year during the 2012 Holiday season.

Previously rumoured this week, Microsoft announced Xbox SmartGlass. This new feature for the Xbox 360 will allow gamers to control applications and even games with the use of their Windows Phones, iOS and Android devices. This goes from creating specific running routes in a football game to accepting game invites in Halo 4 without bringing a menu on your TV. To accommodate this new feature, it was also announced that the Xbox Dashboard would get a slight redesign this Fall, working with regular controllers, Kinect sensors and touch devices. Better late than never, Microsoft also announced that Internet Explorer would make its way to Xbox 360 and that touch devices can be used to control it.

Eidos then jumped on stage to show some gameplay for the new Tomb Raider. Using a bow very precisely, Lara Croft was taking down multiple enemies and moving through rough terrain, taking quite a beating from Mother Nature along the way. The game is launching next year and the first DLC will be time-exclusive for the Xbox 360.

A few other trailers were then shown for a small batch of games: Ascend: New Gods from the makers of Toy Soldiers (coming in 2013), LucoCycle from the people over at Twisted Pixels (The Maw, Splosion Man, The Gunstringer), and Matter, a game made for Kinect coming in 2013.

It was then Capcom’s turn with a live demo of the new Resident Evil 6. We were shown a bit of the Leon Kennedy/Claire Redfield Coop campaign. We witnessed the return of the brain-dead zombies as well as new moves such as tactical door-opening, diving and new types of Quick-Time Events. The game will release on October 2nd and a demo will be available about a month prior to release.

Then there was another small round of a few games reveals. First, a kind of Angry Birds looking game working with Kinect body controls called Wrecketeer, in which players must destroy castles by shooting cannon balls with a catapult. This game will be launching on Xbox LIVE this summer. Matt Stone and Trey Parker then jumped on stage for a quick showing of the upcoming South Park: The Stick of Truth RPG game being developed by Obsidian (Fallout: New Vegas). Usher also danced a bit as Harmonix’s Dance Central 3 was revealed.

Don Mattrick finally ended the press conference by bringing Treyarch on stage to show some single player footage of Black Ops II. Set in a more or less near future, the game looks like pretty much everything you would expect from the Call of Duty franchise but with this new time era twist. The game will launch on November 13th.

That’s it! Stay tuned to That Gamer Hub for more of our E3 coverage this week!

Original Article

Electronic Arts E3 2012 Press Conference

Electronic Arts is coming into this year’s E3 with its usual lineup of sports titles such as Madden and NHL but also with quite a few interesting games like Crysis 3, Medal of Honor: Warfighter as well as Insomniac Games’ Overstrike. We will bring you all the news on Electronic Arts’ press conference in real time starting at 4:00pm Eastern/ 1:00pm Pacific.

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Microsoft E3 2012 Press Conference

Kinect has been around for a couple of years and the Xbox 360 has been around for about six years. Since it was announced that no next-generation console was going to be presented at this year’s E3, the American manufacturer has to rely on games to impress gamers: Fable: The Journey, Halo 4, and Forza Horizon. We will bring you all the information about Microsoft’s press conference live starting at 12:30pm Eastern / 9:30am Pacific.

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Nintendo’s Surprise Pre-E3 2012 Presentation

Out of nowhere on Saturday, Nintendo announced that they would reveal some new information about the Wii U on Sunday, right before the other companies’ press conferences (and even the main Nintendo press conference scheduled for Tuesday). Here is what the big N had to present.

Wii U Game Pad

The presentation began with the reveal of the final version of the Wii U controller called the Wii U Game Pad. A few small modifications happened since the last time we saw the controller at last year’s E3. First, the circle pads were removed for thumbsticks, which can be pressed down to work as a button unlike the Wii’s thumbsticks (on the Wiimote and on the classic controller). Also, the Start and Select button were relocated closer to the controller’s face buttons, making it easier for the player to access them. Nintendo also announced that the Wii U Game Pad will work as an infrared TV Remote.

Nintendo also announced the Wii U Pro Controller, which resembles the Xbox 360 controller quite a lot, with the exception of the face buttons and the right thumbstick being swapped.

Finally, it was re-confirmed that the Wiimote, Nunchuck, and Wii Balance Board will all be compatible with the Wii U.

Miiverse and console features

Nintendo followed with a small overview of some of the Wii U’s features, starting with the console’s start-up menu. The menu resembles the Wii’s menu in some way, except that it will present other people’s Miis in the background (your Mii, your console’s Miis, your friend list’s Miis, and others’ Miis) as well as messages left by them.

Then, Mr. Iwata presented messaging between gamers on the Wii U. Players will be able to send messages to each other anytime when they are playing or just surfing the console’s menus. Like the Nintendo DS, players will be able to chat using either text messages or handwritten messages. These messages will be accessible through other Wii U consoles and, in the future, through the 3DS, PCs or any other web-enabled device. Additionally, the Wii U Game Pad can be used as a camera in video chat sessions (similar to Apple’s FaceTime application). Players will also be able to leave messages on some parts of the games themselves, a little bit like Demon Souls have done in the past.

Player will also be able to take screenshots in-game and post them online for others to see. A web browser was also announced, with the ability to use both the Wii U Game Pad’s screen and the TV for display or only the former, just like it will be the case with most games.

Mr. Iwata confirmed that Wii U games would be presented on Nintendo’s press conference on Tuesday so stay tuned to That Gamer Hub for our coverage of the E3 2012 press conferences as well as daily wrap-up articles throughout next week.

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E3 2012 - Konami’s Press Conference Wrap-Up

Konami is coming to this year’s E3 with many promises. Metal Gear Rising, a sequel to Castlevania: Lord of Shadow as well as a rumoured Castlevania game for the Nintendo 3DS. As fans wanted to learn more about these titles, here is what Konami actually had in store:

New studio

Konami has opened a new studio in San Fransisco which will focus on Social and Mobile games development. So far, this studio has developed games such as Frogger Pinball, Frogger Classic and Twilight Carnival. They have also announced that Konami’s Social games will be published by the Social games giant Zynga (Farmville).

Pro Evolution Soccer

Multiple new features for the next entry in this popular soccer game series were presented to gamers. They announced control over the ball during gameplay through multiple improvements such as a new dribble system, different types of passes, the ability of kicking the ball while it’s still in the mid-air as well as the ability of tipping the ball over an opponent’s head. For added realism, players can now fake fouls in matches. Also, it was said that the AI has been greatly improved. Finally, a downloadable demo will be made available to players (as it is usually the case every year).

Zone of the Enders HD Collection

Nothing much was presented about this beloved franchise. We did get a look at the upgraded graphics which look stunning and it was announced that a new anime-style intro animation would be included in the game. The game will be made available during the Holiday season later this year on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Metal Gear 25th anniversary

To begin, Hideo Kojima talked a bit about the Metal Gear franchise’s 25th anniversary. Many celebrations are happening throughout the year, starting with being part of the The Art of the Video Game exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum. The famous game designer also reminded us of the upcoming PS Vita version of Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and hinted about the FOX Engine, which will power the next game in the Metal Gear Solid series.

A new trailer was then presented for Metal Gear Rising. It showed off the crazy action of the game, developed by Platinum Games (Bayonetta). The game promises precise slashing through anything that stands in your way as well as a new dash move, similar to Ryu Hayabusa’s dash in Ninja Gaiden but on overdrive mode.

Finally, a Metal Gear Rising-themed Mega64 video played and revealed that a demo for the game would be available early with Zone of the Enders HD Collection, but it will be made available to everyone later through Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network.

Castlevania

One short trailer was waiting for us at the end of the conference, officially revealing Castlevania: Lord of Shadows 2. Aside from a beautiful cinematic showing off insanely big crowds of enemies, no information was presented. A small teaser followed, hinting at the rumoured 3DS Castlevania title.

Konami’s press conference was clearly nothing too mind-blowing compared to what the publisher had in stores last year, but still managed to deliver on the very few games that gamers wanted to hear about.

Stay tuned to That Gamer Hub for our coverage of the E3 2012 press conferences as well as daily wrap-up articles throughout next week.

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