E3 has come and gone, but it doesn't mean the end of big announcements and reveals to end. That's why we're here at Gamerzitch! Before we start with the weekly wrap-up, we at Gamerzitch would like to say "Thank you" for visiting us for our livestreams we set up for each and every press conference, reading our Wrap-Ups for each of them, and checking out our Twitter and Facebook for up to the minute coverage as it happend!
First thing's first, if you missed the conferences, we have kindly re-capped all of them just for you.
The above are all just 1 day before E3 2011. Here's where we get you your wrap-ups for each conference along with some news that happened right in the middle of it all!
That's it for this week. Obviously with E3 being the event in the industry, that I keep referring to as "The Superbowl of Videogames" we couldn't be up to date with everything that happened at the expo, especially since we weren't there. Hopefully over the weekend, we'll be able to check back on things that we've missed if we have the time. Anyway, enjoy your weekend and game on!
Nintendo was the last company to give their press conference at this years E3, and they also had the most hype of anyone at the show. With the knowledge we’d be getting a new console and some more news on the 3DS, all eyes were on them. Did they show up? Let’s see.
The conference opened with an orchestra playing some of the classic tunes from the Legend of Zelda games, which set up the talk for a Zelda retrospect in honor of its 25th anniversary. Once the orchestra concluded the man himself Mr. Shigeru Miyamoto took the stage to make some announcements regarding the classic franchise. He made the announcement that all of Nintendo’s current hardware would be getting a Zelda game. The 3DS would of course be getting Ocarina of Time 3D (next week), the newly opened 3DS eShop has just released The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, DSi Ware will be getting The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords (for free), and Skyward Sword was confirmed to be out holiday of this year. Miyamoto also made the announcement that there will be Zelda orchestral concerts held in different regions around the world. You’ll also get a gold Wii Remote if you pre-order Skyward Sword, as well as the games original soundtrack. Ocarina of Time will get a soundtrack as well.
Head honcho, president and CEO of Nintendo Satoru Iwata showed up to confirm that Nintendo had a new console. He pulled a fast one though and made people wait a bit longer to see it. He instead spoke about the 3DS and announced that there would be five new first-party 3DS games coming. Star Fox, Mario, Kid Icarus Uprising, Mario Kart, and Luigi’s Mansion 2.
Iwata then gave way to one Reggie Fils-Aime president of Nintendo of America. Reggie spoke more on those five 3DS games, gave some more details about each one. Star Fox showed off group play and tilt controls, that will be out in September. Kid Icarus showed some multiplayer. Mario Kart has hang-gliding and driving underwater. Luigi’s Mansion will have multiple mansions, and Mario has finally gotten his Tanooki Suit back. Some third-party 3DS games were shown, Resident Evil, Ace Combat, Pac-Man, Tekken, and Metal Gear were all in full force showing off the 3DS technology.
Then we got the big news, the announcement that everyone was waiting for, the new Nintendo console. The Nintendo Wii U is real. So Nintendo showed us the controller for this thing, and really only the controller. It has two thumbsticks and eight face buttons, standard for controllers in this day and age. The new addition is a touch screen in the middle of the controller. You can see the pic below to get a better view of what this thing looks like. Now a lot of people have been confused, this is not just an addition for the Nintendo Wii, it’s the controller for an entirely new console. Nintendo didn’t mention the actual box at all during the entire conference, but it does exist (you can see it in videos showing off the controller). The controller is what was focused on though. The 6.2 inch touchscreen does not support multi-touch, it is however compatible with a stylus. The biggest feature of the Wii U is its streaming capability. If you are playing your Wii U on your TV you can instantly switch and go from playing that game on your TV to the touchscreen on the Wii U controller. Iwata was quick to squelch the ideas that this controller could be used as a portable gaming device, since the Wii U controller doesn’t have that hardware in it the console itself needs to be on and near to stream the video. The controller has speakers and a front-facing camera as well.
That’s a lot of talk about what it is, but what about the games, what will these games look like, when can I play this and how much will it cost me. Well Nintendo gave no specs for the Wii U so we don’t know what’s running it. It was confirmed after the press conference that it will output video in 1080p, and we saw games like Darksiders 2, Batman Arkham City, Metro Last Light, and Ninja Gaiden 3 being shown off. It was later revealed that the footage of those games was taken from the PS3 and 360 versions of those games, but Wii U graphics will be “comparable.” One game we did see a brief bit of was what looked like a new Legend of Zelda game. It was running in HD and looked spectacular, and it had an interesting use of the controller screen keeping the menu/inventory on the touchscreen and keeping the game itself on the TV. Other than that Nintendo didn’t show any games actually running on the system because it’s still very early in development. John Ricotello of EA came out to make sure it’s known that EA is behind the Nintendo Wii U.
So Nintendo is an interesting beast, I’ve heard a lot of people say that they came out of the conference more confused than when they went in. I have to say I feel of that mindset as well. Only time will tell how the Wii U will fare, what are all of your thoughts?
Sony, the second of the big three to have their “media briefing” had an incredible showing last night. They opened up with a dubstep song playing over a long montage, showcasing some of the best PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable games of last year. Jack Tretton, President and CEO of SCEA, came out and gave a heartfelt apology to all of the consumers and developers who were affected by the PlayStation Network fiasco. He went on to reassure everyone that despite that incident “the PlayStation brand is stronger than ever.” These words came on the heels of the announcement of another PlayStation partnership with movie streaming service Cinema Now.
After that Sony brought out arguably their biggest guns to start off in the form of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. We got a demo of the gameplay taking place on a constantly rocking ship in the middle of the ocean. We got to see our hero Nathan Drake sneak around this ship and take out guards, only to be captured, only to escape, blowing a hole in the ship in the process, leaving him to escape this ship. All of that happened in the span of five minutes and it was absolutely breathtaking to see. In addition to that awesome gameplay we got a new trailer and the announcement of a special deal with Subway where people will be able to get early access to the games entire multiplayer mode earlier. This deal starts in October.
Next up Marcus Smith of Insomniac came out to show off Resistance 3, we got a nice demo of the game, showing off some of the staple the series is known for. We saw unique weapons, tons of enemies, and one ginormous monster that attempted to crush our hero Joseph Capelli. Resistance will also be following Killzone 3 and get a bundle featuring the PlayStation Move Sharpshooter. This bundle will feature a Move controller, the Sharpshooter accessory, a PlayStation Eye camera, and a copy of the game, it will retail for $149.99.
It wouldn’t be Sony without some 3D push, and to the surprise of myself (and many others) they impressed. First off they showed of the still long awaited Team ICO collection, and the newly announced God of War Origins Collection, which is both of the PSP games remastered and released for the PS3. Both of these games will also be playable in full 3D. Now if you’re like me the buy-in price for 3D is still to much for what you get. Well Sony wants to change that by offering a rather tempting new package. They showed off their brand new PlayStation branded 3D HD TV. This 24” TV is fully HD and has 3D capabilities, perhaps the coolest part of this set though is that when it plays games split screen both players are able to see the game in full screen. This TV will be coming in a bundle set, the bundle will include the TV, a 6 foot HDMI cable, a copy of Resistance 3, and a pair of 3D glasses and will retail for $499.99 with separate pairs of the glasses running $69.99. Overall a pretty appealing package which may actually move some 3D tech into homes (I know it will into mine).
Move was shown off in a few games as to be expected. NBA 2K12 will use the PS Move, which was shown off by none other than LA Laker Kobe Bryant. A new Move game, Medieval Moves was shown off. We did get a good meme out of this in the form of “great job Jeremy,” but the game itself looks rather sluggish and unenjoyable. LittleBigPlanet 2 did also get a showing for the Move section, the game will get even more Move support, as well as levels built by and meant for use with the Move controller.
We got to see a lot more games, Starhawk was shown off and looked spectacular. Though we saw very little of it we do know it will be out early 2012. Dust 514 is a first person shooter set in the EVE online universe other than that we don’t know much. The game that stole the show though (for me) was Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, sometime in 2012, I’m happy.
Then we got to see more of Bioshock: Infinite. Ken Levine, head honcho at Irrational Games came out and gave a quick talk about how motion controls like the PlayStation Move can add to the core of games without sacrificing that core experience we all cherish. It seems that having said that Bioshock: Infinite for the PS3 will have some kind of Move support, we’ll also be getting some type of Bioshock game on a handheld.
Sony also strutted their console exclusives they’ll have for some of the major upcoming releases. Starting with the previously mentioned Bioshock: Infinite which will have a copy of the original Bioshock on disc. Saints Row 3 will have an exclusive multiplayer mode on the PS3. The newly announced Star Trek game will have Move support and even get a phaser shaped Move controller. The exclusiveness continues into everyone’s favorite snowboarding game SSX, which will get exclusive races down the famous Mt. Fuji. Need for Speed the Run will get exclusive cars, and the PS3 version of Battlefield 3 will have a copy of last years downloadable darling Battlefield 1943.
Then we finally got what we’d all been waiting to see the NGP, or should I say the PlayStation Vita. Yes Sony’s new handheld came out guns blazing, starting with a name, PlayStation Vita (Latin for life.) Kaz Hirai, executive deputy president of Sony came out to show off the new hardware and make some announcements.
We got to see a smattering of games Uncharted: Golden Abyss was shown off, and as advertised it looked like a PS3 game running on a handheld. Touch controls were shown off as was just standard control, both seemed to work very well especially now that two analog sticks are present. Ruin an RPG for the PlayStation Vita was shown off, the most interesting part of Ruin was its ability to change play from your Vita to your PS3 seamlessly without skipping a beat, which is similar to Hideo Kojima’s new transfarring technology. We got to see LittleBigPlanet and Modnation Racers running on the Vita. As the two user created content games it was very reassuring to hear that all the content that has already been created for these two games on PS3 and PSP will be available on the Vita versions. Each one also showed off touch controls which were used for both playing and creating and worked very smoothly and seemed fun to use. We finally got to see Street Fighter X Tekken running on the Vita, it was smooth and looked almost exactly as good as its PS3 counterpart. Oh and Cole from inFamous will be an exclusive to the Vita version.
The big news we were waiting for was the price and the release date. The PlayStation Vita will be released by Holiday season of this year, it will retail at $249.99 for the WiFi only version and $299.99 for the WiFI + 3G version. The 3G will be run through AT&T, which gained audible groans and a few boos at the conference. Despite that though the Vita looks incredible to say the least, and has (for this guy at least) warranted a day one purchase.
Sony really brought their A-Game this year. Showing off a smattering of great games and a brand new piece of impressive looking hardware. Many people are considering them the winners of E3 this year. What do you all think, did Sony win you over?
Besides that, we don't know what else Nintendo has up their sleeves. As of this posting, the conference begins in about 15 minutes. The livestream is right below and of course, keep checking on us on our Twitter and Facebook!
E3 2011 continues to roll on as we just finished checking out Ubisoft’s Press Conference, here’s the lowdown.
Yves Guillemot CEO of Ubisoft came out on stage and addressed the public commemorating Ubisoft’s 25th year in the business. After a quick speech we moved onto the games.
Ubisoft started strong with Rayman Origins. Michel Ancel the creator of Rayman came out to demo the game. Origins is a side-scrolling platformer that has a charming, cartoony art style. The entire game can be played co-op, and as we saw you and your partner are free to slap each other around for fun. We got to see a large variety of stages; ranging from a cave, a lava area, and underwater section, and flying through the sky. The whole game looks like a joy and even had a funny little Tetris joke. We didn’t get a release date though.
The conference took a bit of a downer there as our “host” Aaron Priceman (aka Mr. Caffeine) came out, and just wouldn’t leave. I know the press conferences are about the games but you need someone who can move things along smoothly, Mr. Caffeine could not do this. Anyway, we then got a quick history of Ubisoft’s time in the games industry. There was a really cool running bit throughout the event where we got shots of what current Ubisoft games (ie Driver, Assassin’s Creed) would’ve looked like 25 years ago, with some of them actually looking fun to play.
We then got to see the newest outing from Reflection Studios, Driver San Francisco. The Bay Area was lovingly recreated and looked beautiful as cars ripped through and tore the area up. There will be a new multiplayer mode for Driver San Francisco though we haven’t heard anything on that yet.
This led us into Far Cry 3, the gameplay demo we saw opened up with a truly terrifying scene as your hands and legs were tied up to a giant rock, followed by being tossed off a cliff into a lake by an incredibly well acted maniac. From there we took a tour of a beautiful jungle, knifed many a soldier and stole a helicopter. Far Cry 3 can be expected sometime in 2012.
Gearbox President Randy Pitchford made his way to the stage after Far Cry 3 to introduce the latest Brothers in Arms Game, Brothers in Arms: The Furious 4. In what many are calling the videogame version of Tarintino’s Inglorious Bastards you’ll be part of a squad of Nazi killers. Gruesome hatchets to the head and chain gun goodness abound in this trailer. Again though, no release date announced just sometime in 2012.
We also got to see Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg talk about the new movie based game The Adventures of Tintin, from what we saw it looked part platformer, part beat ‘em up. Still to early to tell, the two famous movie icons though seemed pretty enthusiastic.
One of the biggest games Ubisoft showed off was the new Tom Clancy game, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. This newest third person tactical shooter in the Ghost Recon series set off a lot of peoples badass radars. Invisible camo, saving civilians, intense firefights, literally millions of options for weapon customization, and four-player co-op all help make Future Soldier an amazing package. That wasn’t the only Ghost Recon game to show up though, Ubisoft also announced Ghost Recon Online. Few details have been released about it so far but we do know that it will be free to play.
Trackmania also made its triumphant return; Trackmania 2 was shown to the public. One point of interest is that every track in the demo was created by users. Trackmania will now be getting some siblings with an RPG version called Questmania and a FPS version called Shootmania. These are all part of the Maniaworld series.
Of course it wouldn’t be Ubisoft with Rabbids, a new game starring those adorable psychopathic bunnies is in the works, this time for Microsoft’s Kinect. Raving Rabbids: Alive and Kicking, will be another collection of mini-games the one we saw had a bunch of the developers working together to make obscure shapes with their bodies. Just Dance 3 was also announced with a star studded cast playing the game with the Kinect, the Wii, and the PlayStation Move. Just Dance 3 will be released on October 11, 2011.
We had three more games shown off before Ubisoft’s night was over. Rocksmith, the music game that teaches you to play guitar, was announced although it’s hard to look at that game and not see the Rock Band 3 guitar. We also saw the follow-up to Your Shape Fitness in the form of Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 for the Kinect. While those types of games are not for everyone they do have their audience.
Finally, closing out the night, Ubisoft showed the game that got an audible gasp from the audience. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. The last Assassin’s Creed game staring Ezio will take place in Constantinople, and it looks gorgeous. We got a trailer showing off an old Ezio with grey facial hair still being awesome. We then got a brief snippet of gameplay where we saw Ezio zip line to a ship, use a hand crank flamethrower to destroy other ships and then hop and crawl across the wreckage to escape the area. The trailer we saw also showed a ghostly image of Altair further hinting that he will have a presence in Revelations.
Ubisoft had a very impressive show overall, with Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations stealing the show. What was your favorite part of Ubisoft’s Press Conference?
Friday, June 10, 2011 at 9:41PM 
