MEGATech Showcase: E3 2012 Videogame News Round Up Dylan Duarte June 11, 2012 Features Another year, another E3. Unfortunately, like last year, a lot of gamers walked away from this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo fairly disappointed after the big three – Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft – failed to really wow audiences. However, that isn’t to say there wasn’t some truly cool stuff showed off. Here’s a good look at what everyone had to offer. Microsoft Microsoft kicked everything off with the first press conference, where they of course showed off the further adventures of Master Chief in Halo 4. The game’s first look showed off gameplay, new enemies, and an overall more mature tone. Gears of War: Judgement was officially revealed after being announced just a few days prior. The short trailer that was shown hinted at series regular Baird possibly being the mean character. We saw more footage of the Tomb Raider reboot, the upcoming Resident Evil 6, and Matt Stone and Trey Parker talked about South Park: The Stick of Truth, giving us a better look at the gameplay. Ubisoft unveiled Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the latest in the famed Tom Clancy series. Much to my disappointment, Michael Ironside is no longer the man behind Sam Fisher. Ubisoft wanted one actor to do both the motion capture and voice work, and since Ironside isn’t exactly in killer shape, that role went to Smallville veteran Eric Johnson. Dead Space 3 will feature co-op, Criterion is making a new Need for Speed, and Star Wars: The Old Republic will be free to play up until level 15. Then there’s Xbox Smartglass, which you can read about in an earlier post. Sony The creators of Heavy Rain are back with another cinematic journey, Beyond: Two Souls, which will follow a psychic teenager named Holmes, using the voice and appearance of actress Ellen Page. We saw more of Far Cry and learned that there will be a separate co-op campaign, with its own story and characters. Up to four players can play online or two players via split screen. Assassin’s Creed III was shown off and we learned that the game will feature naval battles. We also got to see some of the God of War: Ascension campaign and a live demo for Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us. PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale is looking less and less like a Super Smash Bros. clone. Characters showcased included Sweet Tooth, Kratos, Fat Princess, Nathan Drake, Sly Cooper, a Big Daddy from BioShock (which is an odd choice for a PlayStation All Star), Mael Radec of Killzone, and my personal favorite, PaRappa the Rapper. The game will launch for both the PS3 and the Vita and the two platforms will be compatible. The Vita will also get Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation and Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified, two Vita exclusives. AC III: Liberation will be able to link up with Assassin’s Creed III on the PS3 for exclusive content. Finally there was Wonderbook, an augmented reality “edutainment” product that has been the subject of much ridicule, criticism, and jokes. The player holds a book-like object and, using the PlayStation Move and PlayStation Eye, content is displayed on the screen. It’s like a real book, only needlessly complicated. Nintendo As expected, Nintendo focused on the still-terribly-named Wii U, which will be getting ports of plenty of AAA titles such as Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City. Also expected, Nintendo announced several titles for their upcoming console: New Super Mario Bros. 2, New Super Mario Bros. U, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and the much-anticipated Pikmin 3. The Nintendo 3DS will be getting Luigi’s Mansion 2. Nintendo unveiled Nintendo Land, a mini-game collection designed to demonstrate the functionality of the Wii U. As sick as everyone is of mini-game collections, Nintendo Land looks surprisingly solid, which has been backed up by impressions on the show floor. Nintendo Land is set in a theme park populated by games based on Nintendo titles, such as Luigi’s Mansion, The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong, and F-Zero. The title will feature 12 different mini-games. The highlight of Nintendo’s conference was ZombiU, a first-person shooter set to be released as a Wii U exclusive. The game uses both the television display and controller display in conjunction, with the controller screen displaying the character’s inventory. If a player dies, that character stays dead and the player must create a different character. They can then find their former character, who is a now a zombie, and kill them to retrieve their gear. Online play will play a part, and online friends can be notified when a player dies so that they can attempt to take the player’s gear. And the Rest Deep Silver announced a sequel to their critically-meh’d zombie title Dead Island entitled Dead Island Riptide. LittleBigPlanet 2 will get Vita cross-play DLC. Ubisoft showed off the stellar-looking Watch Dogs, which many are calling the game of the show. Watch Dogs is an open-world third-person game that takes place in a futuristic world where all data seems connected. Using a handheld device, the players can listen in on phone conversations, disrupt communications, control trains, manipulate traffic lights, and much, much more. Little is known about the plot but the gameplay showed off featured the player manipulating traffic lights and causing a traffic accident in an attempt to ambush a target. There were more titles here and there, but this was all of the big news that came out of E3 2012. Share This With The World!
