Tag Archives: video games

Marvel Mighty Heroes: Age of Ultron Ep. 2 Begins Today

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Today DeNA announced the second episode of an eight part in-game evnt series for Marvel Mighty Heroes, a real-time co-op brawler available now on the App Store and Google Play. Marvel Mighty Heroes allows players to assemble a team of iconic superheroes to battle evil villains from the Marvel Universe. Following the successful first episode which wraps-up today, the second Age of Ultron episode will run from today through June 24.

In the second episode, Hydra has delivered the genocidal artificial intelligence Ultron to their scientific arm, A.I.M., for study. Players are tasked with stealing the artifact from A.I.M. and stop the villainous M.O.D.O.K. before he figures out a way to wreak havoc with his new toy! The latest episode also introduces new heroes and villains including Moon Knight, Taskmaster, and Black Widow.

Marvel Mighty Heroes - Age of Ultron key art

PC Gaming Show E3 Update Live Reaction

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This year, for the first time, AMD and PC Gamer magazine have come together to give an E3 show dedicated to gaming on the PC. It will be interesting to see the feel of this show and see what games are shown. Our coverage will start with the show at 9:00 PM ET.

This page will not automatically refresh. I will put the latest update at the top of the list, so if you join us late, scroll down. Here is the full E3 coverage schedule, this is the last live update as it is the last press event. However, check our coverage of all the previous press events.

Update 36: That’s it. 2 1/2 hours is a bit long. The host, Sean “Day[9]” Plott was very good. He kept it moving, but there was way too much overlap from previous announcements. I give this one a C+. With the conclusion of this, we conclude our live updates for this year’s E3. Thank you for reading.

Update 35: Confirmation that it is coming to PC as well as PS4. This game of massive scale is made by a team of about 10. They use AI bot testers. That is pretty cool.

Update 34: Nope, No Man’s Sky. I will now be a hypocrite and say bring it! More of this game is fine!

Update 33: The prologue missions are free to everyone, but early access only for pre-order holders of Legacy of the Void. Time for the final guest. Is it Gabe?

Update 32: Blizzard Entertainment take the stage. Start off talking about Heroes of the Storm, the Blizzard MOBA. Here we are talking about the first expansion for the game. Deckard Cain needs your help. Diablo characters are coming to Heroes of the Storm in Eternal Conflict. The treasure goblin will show up and offer bonus gold at the start of the stage if your team kills it. The Skeleton King is coming. He hangs out on the battlefield as a wraith after death. He can’t deal damage, but he can do other things. The monk will also be coming as a support character. Also, Star Craft II: Legacy of the Void Whispers of Oblivion. It will finally finish the story line that has been ongoing. We got a pretty movie. 3 prologue missions with a beta in July.

Update 31: Cliff has started a new studio which is developing a first person 5v5 team game. He likes stuff. Now being demoed on the stage is Enter the Gungeon which is a “bullet hell dungeon crawler.” Each room is hand designed, but the floors are procedurally generated. They are showing off the co-op mode. Over two hundred weapons in the game.

Update 30: Two hours in and we are still trucking along. Now showing a space survival game: Take on Mars which started as an ARMA mod. Hey! Look who it is! Cliffy B!

Update 29: DayZ is on the stage now. The game that helped create the zombie survival genre which has been in early access for a long time. They are pushing for a feature complete beta that will include a solo play mode and will let modders test locally and not require Internet to play the game. They will also release the tool to set up their own DayZ servers. Look, something with actual information. That is pretty amazing.

Update 28: Now on the stage, a horror game from the makers of Amnesia titled Soma. A horror game set under the sea. Being a horror game, I will never be playing this. Dark halls, strange noises, unexplainable stuff, out this September.

Update 27: Next up, Tacoma, yet again, a game that was in the Microsoft briefing. It is a first person exploration game in a near-future space station setting. I’m tired of this show being filled with stuff Microsoft is clearly helping push.

Update 26: A game called Dirty Bomb which is a shooter based on mercenary teams. Different characters with different abilities. You can play for free.

Update 25: Indie title Beyond Eyes is on the stage. This is an exploration game. This was also shown in the Microsoft briefing. Coming summer 2015. The protagonist is a blind girl who is exploring her world. Audio is crucially important. It also focuses on how perception can be wrong about your environment and that multiple senses come together to give you information.

Update 24: Showing an expansion for ARMA III. It is footage of an island. Tanoa- a new terrain for the game. 100 km squared of a Pacific island. New setting, new architecture.

Update 23: Nine new cards were announced today. The flagship Radeon Fury X R9 will cost $650. They also are showing off an uber gaming rig for VR stuff. Now they are showing a “dual VG GPU card” whatever that means. The crowd seems to like it.

Update 22: Another word from our sponsor. The CEO of AMD takes the stage: Lisa Su. I believe we are going to get new hardware announcements.

Update 21: Okay, back, and still on Hitman. It seems this is going to be a digital release first.

Update 20: Hitman again. I’m sorry, I’ve already seen this twice. I’m going to take a bathroom break. BRB.

Update 19: Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns on stage. It is the forthcoming expansion which has a new “guild halls” feature. The guild halls are the customizable social spaces you can decorate and host brawls and launch adventures from. These are maps that guilds can own.

Update 18: David Braben, CEO of Frontier Developments, creator of Elite: Dangerous is on stage to announce a new game. Woo! Planet Coaster, a new theme park simulator.

Update 17: Strafe with a live demo on stage. This was another Kickstarted game. It is an FPS with procedurally generated persistent levels. Next, the first expansion for Pillars of Eternity, the Baldur’s Gate style RPG. The expansion is called The White March and is the first of several planed expansions.

Update 16: Ion is on stage again to talk about early access. This was also in the Microsoft briefing. It focuses on what happens on a space station. It will use a semi-isometric camera set-up. No time frame yet. The idea is before the prototype is released, they want a polished core which can be built upon.

Update 15: VR time. We start with EVE: Valkyrie. This is a VR space combat sim in the EVE universe. VR takes some getting used to, but it allows for more situational awareness for the player. This game is the first AAA looking VR game I’ve seen so far. While they share a universe, they are very separate experiences.

Update 14: American Truck Simulator announcement! PC gamers like strange things. It is exactly what the name suggests. It is a trucking simulator. Better get your loads across the country on time. It features data from Google Maps. Get your pre-orders in now.

Update 13: The Coalition takes the stage to announce Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is coming to PC as well. 4k resolution support, unlimited refresh available on PC.

Update 12: Oh good, more info on Guardian. This was the cartoony game that just had a video at the Microsoft presser. Okay, so 5 on 5 team shooter/MOBA. Each team has an AI controlled guardian. The heroes are designed so players of different skill types can find a champion that will fit their play style. Each character has branching upgrade trees that further give options. Closed beta in August with open beta later in the year.

Update 11: Fable Legends is coming to the stage with a new video for the game. It is Xbox One and Windows. Does have cross platform play. Why free-to-play? They want everyone to play it and make up their minds. They are planning for “years of content” and put out new quests, creatures, and heroes.

Update 10: Phil Spencer, head of Xbox is now on the show. I guess this explains the sponsorship. Oh, the Xbox division is now in charge of all gaming at Microsoft? Windows 10 and Direct X 12 as cross platform tools and helping developers by making a more cohesive ecosystem. Also announces that Killer Instinct is coming to PC.

Update 8: Next  up Total War. New title Total War: Warhammer a RTS with the Warhammer setting. This will appeal to a lot of people.

Update 7: Same talking points from the Square Enix presser. Giving a bit of the setting rundown. Now we are getting into talking about the Dawn engine and Direct X 12 and how they can put more objects and detail on the screen.

Update 6: Oh yeah, there is a reminder why- the card alone is nearly $300. Now time for more Deus Ex talk.

Update 5: Star Citizen update. They seem to be motion capturing presently. This game was Kickstarted. No real new info. Now a message from our sponsors. The AMD “Chief Gaming Scientist” is on the stage. New Radeon graphic cards were announced: R7 360 and R9 380. I haven’t built a machine in 7 years, so I have no real concept of what he is talking about now. I mean, I get the concepts, but not how good these are in relation to anything.

Update 4: This game is available in early access. It is a FPS against waves of zombies. You can play solo or co-op, it allows player created maps, offers a free “Incinerate and Detonate” content pack add-on. Now they are having a discussion of the gore technology involved. Never has gore used so much technology to be gory. The content pack will have 50% more content than what the game ships with. They just announced that early access players will not have their player progression reset at launch. They also show a world premier of a new game. Seems to be set in the Vietnam War. Involves infantry and air support. Rising Storm 2: Vietnam.

Update 3: We start with a video of a player building his/her rig with an AMD chip. Goes into a reel showing tons of games new and old. Because there are a lot of games and mods on PC. First Guest is John Gibson from Tripwire Interactive for Killing Floor 2.

Update 2: Here we go!

Update 1: The stream is live. Still 47 minutes until the show, but they are showing PC gaming trivia questions. Why is Xbox a sponsor of the PC Gaming Show? I would understand Microsoft, but Xbox specifically?

Square-Enix E3 Live Response

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Square-Enix has the last publisher specific presser before the E3 show gets fully underway. While we had a lot of Square-Enix at both Microsoft and Sony, expect more on Hitman and Final Fantasy as well as a showcase of Just Cause 3.

This page will not automatically refresh. I will put the latest update at the top of the list, so if you join us late, scroll down. Here is the full E3 coverage schedule, so stick with us.

Update 14: Wow, this was a really uninformative press conference. I’m glad I could be the one that watched this for you so you didn’t waste your time. This press conference gets an F. The games will probably be pretty great, but that did not give us 90 minutes of excitement or entertainment.

Update 13: Looks like a Deus Ex game. A really polished first-person action-RPG. Set for release early next year. There is a Final Fantasy Portal App coming soon. It will have…things? I dunno, they didn’t tell us. Just that it is coming. They are announcing a new RPG product from a new studio. The studio is called Tokyo RPG Factory. They show some concept art of a snow covered world. A forest, and a village, and a weird cave made up of optics and clock faces. You can see them at Tokyo RPG Factory.

Update 12: I’m not going to lie. This press event is boring me a bit. Very little information being shared. Oh good, time for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. It was seen in a few videos yesterday, but not talked about. It is using a new game engine. It takes place 2 years after the last game. Augmented humans are being segregated and persecuted. Again, a lot of telling, not a lot of showing. New powers, choices change the story, etc. Here we go, first in game trailer.

Update 11: Reel for Hitman Sniper, Triade Wars, and Final Fantasy XV. Another video for…a new Star Ocean? Yup. Star Ocean Integrity and Faithlessness. Sheesh, little heavy handed with that subtitle. Confirmed for NA release on PS4. Here comes a game play trailer. Looks like a Star Ocean JRPG. Six member parties. Coming 2016.

Update 10: Io Interactive takes the stage. Hitman time. Release on December 8th. They will release new content after release. Example: Have a target that is available for 48 hours and you get one chance to finish it.

Update 9: World of Final Fantasy trailer from last night again. Now the director of the game is coming to speak. He is talking about the challenges that they had. Again talking about the game without telling us anything about it. You can form a tower with the players and monsters that change the effects of the attacks. That is a bit of news, but he doesn’t go any further into it. Coming 2016.

Update 8: Kingdom Hearts III time. First a message from Walt Disney Animation people about the game. Oh, they are proud, and there is a lot of collaboration. Apparently we are getting into the new properties like Tangled for this installment. Time for a game play video. It looks like Kingdom Hearts. Very bright and clean. Yup, there was the tower from Tangled. No characters really revealed outside of Donald Duck, Goofy, and Sora.

Update 7: The PC version of VII that is currently out will still be coming to PS4 this year, as well as iOS. Lokks like Kingdom Hearts is coming to smartphones. Hercules, Alice in Wonderland, the Seven Dwarfs in a turn-based action rpg for your phone. Kingdom Hearts Unchained Key for iOS and Android will come to North America. It will provide a link to Kingdom Hearts III.

Update 6: A teaser reel of upcoming releases. like the Final Fantasy Online expansion, Life is Strange, and Dragon Warrior Heroes. Now they are showing the same Final Fantasy VII remake movie that was shown at last night’s Sony event. More info to come this winter. Does Square Enix know they are supposed to actually covey information at a press event?

Update 5: More mobile. Expanding on the GO concept they’ve already released with Hitman GO there is now Lara Croft GO. It looks pretty. Turn based adventure. Again, not a lot of information.

Update 4: More Rise of the Tomb Raider. So far only announced for PC and Xbox One, but perhaps a timed console exclusive (probably at least a year). Today we get a behind the scenes look at how Laura Croft was created for this series. No new info here, though.

Update 3: Announcement of a new game from Platinum Games. Pretty art, heavy hitters from the RPG and fighting/action game fields as senior staff. Ah, it is a new Nier game. This will be a 2016/17 release, but looks intriguing. The first game received middling reviews in the West. However, Platinum Games has a strong track record.

Update 2: December 1st release date for Just Cause 3. Awesome. If you haven’t played any of the games in this series, it is the most ridiculous action game ever. Open world, go anywhere in it. Blow up lots of stuff. Grapple a helicopter to a boat and see what happens. Ride a motorcycle off a cliff, parachute down, guns blazing, then grapple into a convertible. Just Cause 3 gives players multiple grapple lines, and has a fully destructible environment. On top of the parachute you also get a wing suit this time. Over 80 vehicles, tons of weapons.  This game looks to be a ton of fun.

Update 1: Slight technical difficulties at the beginning on my end. I seem to have missed the intro but now it is Just Cause 3 time.

Nintendo E3 Digital Event – Live Reaction

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Like the graphic update? Thank Nintendo for providing a banner that I borrowed. Today, E3 actually starts. Nintendo is going to kick things off with a digital press event. I will give you updates here.

This page will not automatically refresh. I will put the latest update at the top of the list, so if you join us late, scroll down. Here is the full E3 coverage schedule, so stick with us.

Update 14: You can check out Super Mario Maker in select Best Buys this week. Details at e3.nintendo.com. Fan videos of the mario theme and stuff. More dancing puppets. The end. Time for Square-Enix.

Update 13: Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash for Wii U is coming out this holiday. It is Mario Tennis. It will be fun. Now on to more on Super Mario Maker. There is a cool look into the history of how Mario levels were designed in the past and comparing it to the freedom of the new maker. There will be an 8-bit Mario amiibo that will make him big. There will be amiibo support- again costumes. Mario will appear as the amiibo character.

Update 12: Level 5’s new 3DS game Yo-kai Watch which has been out in Japan and has the potential to be a monster success here. You capture spirits and use them to battle others, like Pokemon. Now for a new Paper Mario for the 3DS except is Paper Mario and regular Mario…Mario and Luigi Paper Jam. Cool.

Update 11: Yoshi’s Wooly World time. This game looks so nice. We’re talking about the yarn yoshi amiibos. The difficulty is set by the player in that to make the game harder you can try and collect everything in the level. It does feature 2-player co-op. Amiibo support seems to be limited to costume changes. Releases October 16th.

Update 10: Wii U 3rd person RPG. Xenoblade Chronicles? It has the look and feel of that, yup. Release date of December 4, 2015. Awesome. Sign me up. Now for some Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer. A new AC title for 3DS. It looks like AC. Build stuff, collect stuff to put in the stuff you built, help with chores and decorating. Also an Animal Crossing board game on Wii U. It uses amiibos. Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival coming this holiday season. You know, because the amiibo releases have been so good so far.

Update 9: Now a very Japanese Atlus title that appears to be an odd J-Pop JRPG that is 1 part Sailor Moon one part JRPG, and all a little crazy. It is called FE and is set for release in 2016. *EDIT* Apparently it is a Fire Emblem Shin Megami Tensei crossover game.

Update 8: Another 3DS title: Metroid Prime: Federation Troopers this is a 3 player co-op game that includes Blastball which we saw at the world championships. That was a quick look. Now a video for Fire Emblem Fates. It looks gorgeous and for Wii U. 2016.

Update 7: 3DS version of Hyrule Warriors. It will include all DLC characters from Wii U version with additional characters and levels from Wind Waker. It is called Hyrules Warriors Legends. I don’t know how the 3DS is going to handle the draw issues for this game. There are generally a ton of characters on the screen that stress processing power. Maybe the new 3DS processor is more powerful than I thought. Release Q1 2016.

Update 6: The puppets are back to transition (with dancing) to The Legend of Zelda: TriForce Heroes, a 3DS title that appears to be a new iteration on the Four Swords concept (though it appears to be 3 now). There are different outfits with different abilities. Coming this fall. Communication appears to be done through a series of cartoons. So this is a co-op multiplayer game with real dungeons. It is built of the Link Between Worlds tech. There is a totem mechanic in which the 0players can stack to reach higher places. There is single player mode in which you can switch between your Link and two “doll-like characters.”

Update 5: Skylanders Superchargers is coming later this year. It is the new installment in the series. Cool, there will be a Bowser and a DK figure and vehicles that will work in the Skylanders game but will also work as amiibo. Activision with another interesting third-party special relationship.

Update 4: Regie Fils-Aime is up next talking about Nintendo’s theme this E3 is “transformation.” The Nintendo NX (the cross device platform) will be talked about more next year. 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Maker will be out later this year. More new amiibo and game interactions coming soon.

Update 3: Miyamoto is talking about his various inspirations. The gyro of the gamepad can be used to control. Ah, not co-op. The screen shows a wider perspective, and the gamepad has cockpit view. The R-wing can transform into a walker. There is also a tank-like and helicopter-like vehicle. It is called zero because it is not a true sequel, nor a remake.

Update 2: Puppet Miyamoto, too! Now they are turning into Star Fox and friends! Cool! Do a barrel roll! World Premier of Star Fox Zero for Wii U. It looks like the Wii U gamepad will allow for co-op play.

Update 1: We start with muppet-like puppet Iawata and Fils-Aime getting ready. This is awesome.

Sony E3 Press Event Reaction

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Most people would agree that last year Sony had the best press conference of E3. While it is too early to hand them that crown this year, their press conference was a definite crowd-pleaser. They knew their audience pretty well, and delivered exactly what would win them acclaim.

The show started with a solid cheer from the crowd as the first movie started playing and the credits came up on screen. At last, we would see more from The Last Guardian. A game that was first announced in 2009, The Last Guardian has been shrouded in mystery since. That shroud was lifted away with a game play demonstration to start the show.

This is the game that fans of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have been waiting for, and the video delivered exactly what those fans wanted to see. More important, the assurances that the game was still under development were proven true. This type of fan service would be one of several themes for the evening.

The next game shown was a totally new IP from Guerrilla Games, the studio best known for the Killzone series. Horizon: Zero Dawn is set in the vastly distant future. Humans have been reverted to tribes slowly rediscovering technology. Nature has reclaimed much of what humans had built, and now strange creatures made of technology and looking like dinosaurs roam the land. The world is open and the bit shown was of a hunter going to collect supplies from the machine animals when a large predator chases her. The battle that follows showed an interesting variety in the weapons and tactics used to take down the threat. My guess is Horizon won’t be out until Q4 2016, but is certainly a title I will be keeping my eye on.

Sony has figured out that it is critically important to focus on the things the audience is most interested in: games. Specifically, new games we did not know about, or at the least new information about those we did. This was the case with the new Hitman game that Sony gave a first look of and Street Fighter V for which they introduced new characters.

However, by focusing so heavily on the new, you get a major distinction between the Microsoft and the Sony press conferences. Microsoft focused almost exclusively on their line-up through Q1 2016. The games they showed would be in consumer hands soon. While the Sony presser had its share of those- Batman: Arkham Knight, Star Wars Battlefront, and Call of Duty: Black Ops III chief among them- many of the games shown did not even suggest a release date. Sony’s strong present market condition gives them the luxury of focusing more long term. That, in turn, allows them to show more new IPs and focus on those fan service moments used to strengthen brand loyalty.

The presentation team put a heavy emphasis on showcasing games that were “better” on PS4 as the PS4 version would have some tangible benefit. Map packs, exclusive missions, exclusive betas, timed exclusivity, almost every game presented had some kind of benefit for playing it on PS4. This was particularly noticeable in the Activision Sony partnership. I thought it was odd the Call of Duty did not make an appearance at the Microsoft event. Now it is clear why. On top of PlayStation once again having exclusive content to the new Destiny expansion, The Taken King, the announcements about Call of Duty: Black Ops III with map packs showing up first on PS4.

It was a big night for the JRPG; from the new, intriguing World of Final Fantasy, which has a character size swap mechanic, to the two most cheered announcements of the press event. First, that Final Fantasy VII is getting a remake that will arrive on PS4 first. The crowd lost it at this point; this is a game that many gamers spent countless hours playing and shaped their gaming identity. Second, the odd announcement on the PlayStation stage about a new Kickstarter campaign for Shenmue III. People have wanted this game for thirteen years.

The Shenmue III announcement epitomizes both this idea of fan service and looking to the future. This is a game that the fans have been craving, but is hard for a studio to justify funding. Clearly Sony likes it, but not enough to fully fund it. However, they know they want it on their platform so they give it a prominent spot in their presser (and probably some technical and other marketing support, but that is speculation). It worked really well. As of this writing, less than 12 hours since the launch of the Kickstarter campaign, it has already broken its goal of two million dollars. That two million has been raised by approximately 27,000 backers- which kind of proves Sony’s point. That is not enough copies sold to justify a development budget, but the fans that want this are willing to pay more than $60. Four backers have paid $10,000 for this game. Approximately seven thousand others have paid $100 or more. Still, development is a world away. The campaign has December 2017 as a projected delivery date.

The game that personally has me most intrigued was back this year after the announcement of it at last year’s E3: No Man’s Sky. This game simply looks bonkers. An entire procedurally generated universe to explore however you want to. It is too big to really comprehend, and that is what is so exciting. The graphics look much better this year. However, we still have not seen a lot of player interaction Even so, this game looks to be special.

The other title that was a bit nebulous was the new game from Media Molecule. I do not know how to describe Dreams. I don’t get it yet. It is a collaborative tool of creation, that much I get. I’m not sure I understand much more about it. Here, just look for yourself:

Indies got a lot less attention this year than last. Devolver Digital, makers of Hotline Miami, got the spotlight showcasing four new games that will be on PlayStation platforms. Firewatch, a title that will make its console debut on PS4, also got the spotlight in the keynote (including a spot in the post show shown at the theater experience). Last year there was a much larger push for indies. My guess is this was largely a time issue.

The Vita got very little love. One sizzle reel, a couple of additional platform announcements, and that is it. It appears the Vita will continue to exist and be a largely ignored part of the PlayStation ecosystem. Project Morpheus, the VR headset, got more stage time even though the reality is the install base of Morpheus (which will cost a lot) will probably never eclipse that of the Vita this generation. Even though Morpheus was shown, not a lot of concrete information was shared. We know Guerrilla Games: Cambridge is developing an arena combat game for it, and that one headset can play with 4 other players on the console, but no real time frame or price point was given.

The only real non-game announcement was the expansion of the PlayStation television content platform Vue. It is expanding to San Francisco and Los Angeles, and they promised that soon users nationwide will have a selection of channels that they can purchase a la carte, including most Discovery and Fox channels. This could be a huge first step in a la carte cable. However, no pricing was discussed.

Star Wars made its appearance in the form of the announcement of the PlayStation exclusive starter bundle for Disney Infinity 3.0 which will include the second Star Wars play set a month before general release as well as a Boba Fett figure. I feel for the spokesman who came out after the crowd was hyped with a picture of the Death Star and the music cue got the crowd excited. The crowd in my theater booed when he started talking about Disney Infinity. After that, we did get footage of a new play mode from Star Wars Battlefront. It was a survival mode in which the two players playing co-op had to survive several waves of enemies.

The show ended with a new game play demo of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. There was a technical issue that forced a restart on the demo, which took a bit away from the impact, but it was still a showing from a studio that knows exactly how to design and execute major action set-pieces.

Overall, the presser was impressive. To me, it struck the right tone of we know we are leading this generation and let us share how we are going to stay ahead. Could it have used a little more focus on things coming out this year? Maybe, but I think the new Activision partnership will carry a lot of water with CoD: Black Ops III. Heck, CoD looked good enough to make me think about returning to the series for the first time in years. They accomplished the harder job of keeping the audience excited for the future. Overall, I give the press event a B+.

Ubisoft E3 Press Event – Live Reaction

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Alright, here is our last live reaction press event of the day: Ubisoft. Yes, Sony is after this, but I will have to give a post-show reaction later tonight as I will be in a movie theater for the PlayStation E3 Experience. I may have to duck out before the end of Ubisoft to get there, but hopefully not.  Anyway, exciting stuff ahead: Assassin’s Creed, The Division and much more! Get ready!

This page will not automatically refresh. I will put the latest update at the top of the list, so if you join us late, scroll down. Here is the full E3 coverage schedule, so stick with us.

Update 11: Nope, playable on the floor and in a few cities across the globe. Yves is back for one last thing. Fighting a drug cartel as a tactical team…this looks incredible. Open world. Ghost Recon: Wildlands. Bam. Ubisoft is the winner so far. I give that a B. New IP announcements, showing more from what we are curious about, but too much time spent on not the games. Alright, time to run for Sony. Check out my write-up later.

Update 10: Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate time. Victorian London, here we come. Streets covered with filth, a gray haze to the industrialized air. Think you can cook? He’s got a grappling hook. Lots of new elements coming forward in time. More firearms, more vehicles, jumping from carriage to carriage, and building your gang. No game play yet, but it looks cool, and I think we are abut to change that.

Update 9: Beta starts September 24th. TrackMania a customizable arcade cart racer is coming to consoles. It is like if you could actually drive your Hot Wheels tracks that you made as a kid. It is fast and ridiculous. It also has a random track generator.

Update 8: Rainbow Six: Siege gets a great trailer staring Angela Bassett, who comes out on stage. She is the deputy director of the Rainbow team. Then we get a mini-interview with her. It is fine, but doesn’t tell us anything new about the game. Here comes the info though. Terror Hunt mode is back- playable solo or coop against AI opponents. They show us a level that was pretty intense. The team had to go into a consulate and defuse a bomb.

Update 7: We’re still on Just Dance. I guess if you are the biggest seller you get more stage time than is strictly necessary. Available October. Wii U, Xbox One, and PS4 players will have access to a dance streaming service that brings new songs and greatest hits to the new game. It is a “Dance on demand streaming service” no talk of price.

Update 6: Just Dance 2016 time. No camera needed, you can use your smartphone as the motion controller. Now, a dance break with Jason Derulo. Apparently Just Dance is now the biggest selling music game of all time. This is worse than Pele. At least Pele had interesting stories. This isn’t even a good performance.

Update 5: Next up is a city builder, but it is set on the moon. Anno 2205, oh cool. You don’t start on the moon, but can get there. The Anno series is a solid sim series, and this looks to continue on that fine record.

Update 4: The Division time. Introducing us to the “dark zone” which seems to be the PVP area? You can work cooperatively or against other players. The demo shows computer enemies and a group of players getting ready to attack for loot. Another group of players show up and their is a brief discussion on if they should attack the other player group. There was no evidence of the two groups being able to communicate. As they wait for extraction, they decide to jump the other player group which ends in two injured from the team and the third member deciding the loot is too great, and takes out his teammates and makes off with all the loot. Betas are coming early next year. Release date is March 8, 2016.

Update 3: Expansion time. The Crew Wild Run Expansion is taking the game off road. Monster trucks, rally cars, drag racing on salt flats. Coming November 17th. Trials Fusion: Awesome Level Max expansion is coming. We just got a video of a cat with a gold-plated handgun riding a unicorn. I’ve got nothing.

Update 2: Yves Guillemot, CEO, comes to the stage to present a new IP- vikings and knights fighting…and samurai? Okay, you have my interest. Only a video so far. But it looks brutal and pretty awesome. For Honor is the title. It looks pretty interesting. The Montreal studio is behind this game. High promises for the immersion of the melee battle. We are going to get a demo right now, 4 on 4 on consoles. We have knights against samurai. The combat looks similar from the Assassin’s Creed franchise, but weightier. You seem to play captains on a field of soldiers. It is playable in the booth, which is really impressive for a new IP.

Update 1: South Park: The Stick of Truth is getting a sequel? Yes, South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Hilarious. This time, we are ditching the fantasy for superheroes. Aisha Taylor is once again our host (thank goodness) and now Matt Stone and Trey Parker from South Park are on stage and have already made the Ubisoft press conference the most profanity filled E3 presentation. I personally had a good time with Stick of Truth so it will be interesting to see how this one shapes up without Obsidian.

EA E3 Press Event – Live Update and Reacti

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Welcome back, dear readers. It is almost time for the Electronic Arts E3 2015 press event. Expect to hear more about EA Access, all the upcoming EA Sports titles, Star Wars: Battlefront, and more. Peter Moore and company will show us what one of the largest publishers has in store.

This page will not automatically refresh. I will put the latest update at the top of the list, so if you join us late, scroll down. Here is the full E3 coverage schedule, so stick with us.

Update 15: We get our first look at game play for Battlefront. It looks like Battlefield with a Star Wars skin on it. We did get Skywalker and Vader fighting on Hoth, but it is unclear who gets to be those characters as opposed to just being grunts. I want this game to be good, but I’m pretty sure it cannot live up to its hype. Well, that is all for EA. I guess the Mass Effect teaser counted as one of the promised 3 new IPs? We knew it existed, but now it has a name? I’d give this presser a C as well. Nothing really groundbreaking again. There certainly were some neat features and games, but I’m not coming away feeling I know a ton more about any of them. Oh well, break time, and then it is on to Ubisoft!

Update 14: Okay, I lost the feed for a bit, but it is back now, and we are talking about Star Wars Battlefront.

Update 13: Madden time. The intro movie focused on the Patriots, which is an interesting decision right now. Madden 16 will have a mode called Draft Champions in which you build a team of current players. It is a mode for Ultimate team. You get three options for each round. Then you can play as your team in a mini-season. They’ve overhauled the passing game….and we’re having some technical difficulties, please stand by.

Update 12: Mirror’s Edge time. The new game is not a sequel. It is called Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst but we still follow Faith. In fact, it is her origin story. The environments look phenomenal. It is first-person, but it is open world free roaming. No levels or loading. Release February 23.

Update 11: Okay, on to FIFA 16. More focus on defense and mid-field play. More motion capture of Messi for better dribbling off the ball. Women’s teams make their debut this year. That is a ton of models in this game. Also, FIFA 15 players will get Pele and Messi in their ultimate team accounts.

Update 10: Pele comes to the stage. He tells a story about coining the phrase “the beautiful game” in relation to football. While I like Pele, this is showing the danger of bringing someone bigger than gaming to the stage. His stories are great, I would watch a 30 for 30 of nothing but him telling stories, but we are here for video games and this is making the presentation lose steam.

Update 9: Let’s talk about mobile. Good news everyone! You can control your FIFA Ultimate Team auctions from you Apple Watch. A new Star Wars digital CCG coming. Also, the Minions are getting their own mobile game. It is a building/resource management game. You are on a tropical island and have to build a paradise with lots of mini-game like activities. Oh boy. Look for Minions Paradise later this year. Okay, FIFA time, and Pele is going to tell us why it is rad.

Update 8: Time to turn to sports. Starting with NHL 16. Do you like hockey video games? Well, here is the one that is available. It looks good, but EA is good at good looking, they aren’t always good at making a great game. Rory MacIlroy PGA Tour will be the first game using the new Frostbite engine in the sports. They promise no load time between holes. All the games with have contextual hints in modes to help improve your playing ability. NBA Live 16 is reintroducing Game Face HD face scanning technology through an app. It looks pretty good this time. Also, we can “up your swag” through the game. I don’t think they are talking about playing as Swaggy P. Look, you can play basketball in this basketball video game with new controls that change the game by making it more like the game.

Update 7: Solo play and local split-screen available. Also, players of the first game can transfer their characters into the new game. Now they are promising free content updates following launch. So maybe EA is learning.

Update 6: The guy on stage wants us to clap for a guy in a zombie suit from Plants vs. Zombies. The crowd is not so interested in that. We’re going to get a live game-play demo. I’m sure this will be amazing…or, you know, not. There is very little here that interests me. Third-person shooter/tower defense is not a genre that appeals to me. Though, EA claims over six million people played the first one, so I guess it works for a lot of people.

Update 5: New IP time. First up, Unravel. You play a tiny creature called Yarny made of yarn. Yarny looks like a cross between an Ugly Doll and Chibi-Robo. It is a puzzle platformer about connections between people. As Yarny moves through the level, he leaves a trail of yarn behind and uses the yarn to navigate the environment. The trailer had me smiling the entire time. It looks really cute.

Update 4: Star Wars the Old Republic is getting a story driven expansion: Knights of the Fallen Empire coming out October 27th. New worlds, new companions, and shaping the world through the choices. It is free to all subscribers. They show a pretty CGI trailer, which as always looks awesome.

Update 3: Need for Speed returns. More street racing, more cop chases. The title is simply Need for Speed. They are trying to pull the best elements from the past 20 years into one package. It is using the latest Frostbite engine. Five modes to capture all of the elements. You can specialize or switch between. Coming Nov. 3rd. It looks like another Need for Speed.

Update 2: Promise of 3 brand new IPs, a sports legend, Mirror’s Edge, and Star Wars. That is a pretty solid line-up for the show.

Update 1: Here we go. Opening with Mass Effect teaser!!! Woo! Exploration jet pack, Mako 2.0, and massive exploration. We also get a name Andromeda, but we don’t get it until Q4 2016.

Microsoft Xbox E3 Press Event – Live Reaction

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Hello all! In about half an hour, Microsoft will take the stage to kick off the day of video game press conferences coming out of E3 2015. Right here is where you can get updated information as it is announced at the event. I will be updating this post with announcements and perhaps a bit of snark. So watch with me as the “greatest games lineup in Xbox history” is revealed.

This page will not automatically refresh. I will put the latest update at the top of the list, so if you join us late, scroll down. Here is the full E3 coverage schedule, so stick with us.

Update 18: We’re coming to the end. Phil is back on the stage talking about how awesome they are. Quantum Break and Crackdown will be shown at Gamescon. Exit sizzle reel has some other games, but that is it. I would say the backwards compatibility is the biggest announcement. Otherwise, no real surprises here. Overall, I’d give this presser a grade of a C. Nothing super great or exciting, but no major missteps either. I will give them credit for mainly focusing on what is happening now and not over promising. Still, it would have been nice to see a non-indy title that wasn’t announced at last year’s E3.  Alright, that is it for now. Next up is EA at 4 PM. You can get to our coverage through the hub-page.

Update 17: Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. A remastered version of the first Gears of War. Public beta for it begins today. Now here is the new Gears game. It is dark and has big soldiers with chainsaws on their guns and rumble-running. Oh yeah, and weird monsters you need to destroy from behind cover. Gears 4 is the title, but Holiday 2016 is the date….so we’ll see it again next year for sure.

Update 16: Fables: Legends has become a free-to-play game. We get a new trailer, but aside from a few short clips, it is hard to tell what’s going on. It is cross-platform between Windows 10 and Xbox One. New relationship with Valve VR – working with Valve to make Windows the best VR platform. Reconfirming their partnership with Oculus Rift. And now we’re going to talk about the Microsoft HoloLens. Time for a tech demo using Minecraft and the HoloLens. It is a tether-less holographic projector headset.   They are using a special camera to show what the HoloLens is showing. It is pretty cool as a tech demo, but they aren’t selling this as something that will actually make my gaming experience better. Also, they are going to hold MineCon in London in a few weeks.

Update 15: Rare Replay – 30 games for $30. Haha, 10,000 gamerscore available for the achievement chasers. Battletoads, Viva Pinata, Perfect Dark (the original), Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and many more. Coming in August, this collection is totally worth $30. Also, they introduce a “shared-world adventure game”. Looks first-person and pirate-y. We see a group of players coming to a pirate ship then working as a crew aboard, finding treasure, walking the plank, fighting other ships. Sea of Thieves looks like it could be fun. The problem with all online games like that is the player base needed to make it work is tough to get and balance, but it is exciting.

Update 14: It looks good. Trudging through the snow leaves trails behind Laura. More ice climbing and major storms trying literally rain destruction as Laura tries to make it to some mysterious ruins. November 10th release. That game looks pretty great. Oh snap, time for Rare.

Update 13: Xbox Game Preview – an early-access program. Elite Dangerous and The Long Dark will be available later today. It will be interesting to see how this shapes development for these games. DayZ creator comes to the stage to introduce Ion which is some kind of space management sim. Again, just a teaser. Here comes Crystal Dynamics to show us Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Update 12: Windows 10 and Xbox One exclusive of a cartoony third-person title. Gigantic seems to be a team battle arena? Free to play…I dunno…not a lot here to explain what is happening. Followed by a sizzle reel of a lot of indie games, many of which were introduced at last year’s E3. Now branded as ID@Xbox. Fullbright studios takes the stage to show off their new game, Tacoma which is first on Xbox and PC. It seems to be a first-person puzzler on a space station. Next, Ashen, an adventure game set in a bleak land. Again, not much to judge. Next indie up is Beyond Eyes which has a blind protagonist. Very nice art style, with a very watercolor feel. The world is only “visible” in small swaths of hearing and smell and touch. Keeping the Indie train rolling, the return of Cuphead, which was one of the most interesting teases from last year’s E3. Classic 1930s/40s art style meets 16-bit platform mechanics. Still coming 2016.

Update 11: New video for The Division. The graphics look a little less gritty than when we last saw it. Ubisoft Americas president takes the stage to talk about it a bit more. Action-RPG, set in New York after a plague sweeps the place. Xbox One gets an exclusive beta in December. I’m sure we’ll hear more later tonight. Next up Rainbow Six: Siege. Rainbow Six: Vegas and Vegas 2 will be backwards compatible and will be free with Siege. October 13th release date.

Update 10: From software world premier? Time for a Dark Souls 3 trailer. It looks dark and hard and like a game I won’t be playing, but I know there are a lot of you that like it.

Update 9: Forza time. Ford Motor Company is bringing back the Ford GT, and they lower one onto the stage. It is a good looking car. Forza Motorsport 6 is coming. Guess what? The team that has been making near-photo-realistic racing games for a while are still really good at their job. 24 player multiplayer, 1080p 60 fps. Releases September 15th.

Update 8: Peter Moore from EA comes to the stage to talk about EA Access – the subscription based service. Play first, play more, play for less is their tag. Xbox One EA Access users will get this year’s Madden early. Xbox Live Gold members get to play the EA Access vault for free this week. Also, announcement of Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 coming next spring. He leaves us with a trailer. This trailer is a mix between the Minions and a bad ’90s action movie. I suppose that is intentional, but it didn’t work for me. Of course, I don’t think I’m the target demo.

Update 7: Fallout 4 on stage. So far nothing new from last night’s Bethesda press event. Here is a bit about a laser musket weapon with a little bit of story. Ah, this is where last night’s bit with the power armor came from. A little more context, but still, nothing amazing to add. Here is a new bit: mods created on PC will be sharable and playable on Xbox One. There is also a banner saying you will get Fallout 3 with Fallout 4 on Xbox One.

Update 6: The backwards compatibility is native and will be available this holiday season for everyone. No charge to play the games you already own. Preview members can start with select titles today. This is a major announcement. It will require that you download the game to the Xbox One, so I guess it is a good thing they are releasing the larger hard drive version. Next comes a trailer for the Xbox Elite Controller which has some cool customization options like the ability to add paddle controllers and it looks like you can program what they do.

Update 5: Phil Spencer takes the stage and drops a bomb: Backwards compatibility with 360 titles is coming.

Update 4: World Premiere video for a game of a kid and its robot dog wandering a desert wilderness. Spider turret bots attack. The kid has a rifle, and gadgets, the dog sacrifices itself leaving behind a big ball of blue energy which the kid uses to power a larger ape-like robot and says “welcome back buddy.” Recore is the title, slated for a Spring 2016 launch. Another exclusive from Microsoft. Looks cool, has a good pedigree, but not a lot to judge since it was just a trailer.

Update 3: Starting with 343 Studios head on the stage. There we go best exclusives launching this year going into Halo 5: Guardians with the audio tag of Xbox One exclusive. Nathan Fillion getting prime play in the teaser. We move into game play. In this demo you are playing as Spartan Locke on the trail of Master Chief. The visuals are impressive. It certainly looks like Halo, but has a different finish and feel from Bungie. There is squad based combat, and we see Locke issuing squad commands to focus on an enemy ship and help a downed comrade. In the next area the group splits in two to flank the enemy. It is Halo, it will sell millions of copies.

Update 2: Here we go. Sizzle reel to start: Tomb Raider, Gears of War, HALO, Fables, Forza all make an appearance. Setting the tone early that we are going to harp a lot on platform exclusives. You know, the bane of the non-fanboy gamer.

Update 1: The stream is up. So far, just a screen telling us in several languages that the briefing will start at 12:30 EDT.

Graphic Policy E3 Live Update Schedule

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Hello everyone! The 2015 Electronics Entertainment Expo is upon us and we are here to bring you live updates of the announcements from the major press conferences all afternoon. Things will get started in a little over half an hour with the Microsoft press conference. The full schedule, as well as links to our coverage of each can be found below as they go live.

Monday 6/15:

12:30 PM ET – Microsoft Press Event

4:00 PM ET – Electronic Arts Press Event

6:00 PM ET – Ubisoft Press Event

9:00 PM ET – Sony Press Event – Reaction

Tuesday 6/16:

12:00 PM ET – Nintendo Direct

1:00 PM ET – Square-Enix Press Event

9:00 PM ET – PC Gaming Press Event

Come back and follow as we share the reveals and add our own snark to the proceedings.

Bethesda Softworks E3 Press Event

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The show starts with a video of Bethesda employees talking about why they love their jobs followed by a sizzle real of the games we’ll presumably hear more about later. Clearly identifiable: Fallout 4, Doom, Battlecry, Dishonored, Elder Scrolls Online.

doomWe start the show with the reborn Doom. It is being developed by id Software and published by Bethesda. We get what seems to be in-engine game play. It looks really good, but who knows how indicative this is or what platform they are showing (my guess is a computer that would be a few thousand to recreate). It is running on a new engine id developed. The enemies are recognizable from previous iterations. Lots of gore, as one would expect. Injured enemies flash indicating a finishing move can be done to them, and those shown are brutally gruesome and include a variety of melee animations. Once the chainsaw came up, the gore level reached a ridiculous level. The HUD is clean and pretty minimalist: clearly designed with playing with a controller in mind. The footage shows several different weapons. The demo ends with a demon that lands and beats the protagonist with his own arm that the demon just ripped off.

Multiplayer will be “fast-paced arena style combat” It will have several different modes, and looks to allow soldiers to play against demons.

The best part of Doom has always been the mod tools. Id has not forgotten that, and they are promising that ability in the new Doom with “Snapmap.” They say the creations will be cross-platform, which is pretty cool. The interface looks like a mix between Halo’s forge and Little Big Planet. Point-and-click level building with a map overview mode and an in level adjustment/build mode as well.

The Doom portion ends with some more campaign footage in hell. More gore, more guns, more demons. The second clip ends with a giant demon and a glimpse at the BFG. It looks great, it feels like Doom, and I’m sure some segment of the market is excited. I’m just not among them. Release Spring 2016 on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Next up, Bethesda.net- the new digital hub for all things Bethesda, including the cross-platform sharing. Transition to talk about Batlecry– the “team based action combat” game- inviting everyone to sign up for the world-wide beta soon. We also get a clip introducing a new faction: the Han Republic. Not a lot of new info here.

Arkane Studios takes the stage. Dishonored 2 time? Looks like- the mask from Dishonored sinks below the water. A very pretty movie comes next. Same setting, new protagonist- a female protagonist? The video shows a female, but the voice-over is male. Ah, you get a choice. Nice. You can play as Corvo or Emily Kaldwin. Not a lot more info here. I expect we’ll get another E3 before we get a release here. Also: Dishonored: Definitive Edition – an HD up-resolution version for PC, Xbox One, and PS4- including all the DLC to date.

Elder Scrolls Online gets a video about new content coming over the next year. The orc homeland? Imperial City? Is this stuff new? I don’t know. I am a heathen and do not care about Elder Scrolls because I do not need a flower-picking simulator and any time I try those games that is what it becomes for me. We also get an announce teaser for The Elder Scrolls: Legends– a digital strategy card game. That could be cool. Free to play on PC and iPad coming later this year. More info to come later.

vault111

Now a funny joke about that being the end of the show. Time for Fallout 4. My issues with Elder Scrolls are also with Fallout. I’m not saying they are bad games or do not deserve the love they get. I get that they are really good, they just aren’t for me.

The Fallout presentation starts out with a TON of concept art, because they make art for everything. It is all pretty amazing. We’re starting before the bombs fall this time. Character customization looks to be some of the best yet seen and you can play as a female or male. Fast-forward to you coming out as the sole-survivor of vault 111 some 200 years later. You can get a dog and give it commands including fetching items. It looks pretty amazing, and is certainly a Fallout game. The collector’s edition will have a real Pipboy that can hold your phone and they have developed an app for it. So, there’s that.

falloutshelterappAlso, a new Fallout game for Apple devices. Fallout Shelter will allow you to make your own vault and manage it. Each dweller has stats, you can build new rooms, equip your residents and send them out to gather resources. You get rewarded with lunchboxes with random loot. It is going to be free, no internet connection required, no pay timers. You can buy lunchboxes. It is available on the Apple app store tonight. Go get it and check it out.

But wait, there’s more about Fallout 4. You can scrap items in the game for materials and rebuild stuff like buildings and furniture. You can build a settlement. Your settlements can be attacked by raiders, so you need to also build defenses. You can run caravans between settlements. This is an optional aspect of the game. The crafting system works on weapons and armor as well. Over 50 base weapons with many mod options. You know, because you didn’t spend enough time with Fallout already.

Next: combat video montage. There are a lot of weapons and a lot of enemies and it can be ridiculous. They close out Fallout announcing the release date: November 10, 2015.

Tomorrow, I will be live-blogging most of the press events.

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