Nintendo’s Press Conference Recap at E3 2012

 

The show started off with some nice CG overlay of Pikmin poking around in the dressing room of  Mr. Miyamoto. It it felt very stiff but it came off seemingly cool. He did a bit in english about the possibilities of pikmin being all around us and there were cuts to more CG pikmin on people in the audience.  Myiamoto announces the obvious Pikmin 3 for the WiiU. Looks great, 4 player co-op, better control is demonstrated in a very RTS overhead view via the WiiPad.

After this Reggie (I swear him & Kristen Stewart have the same public speaking coach, he was very dull and bored the fuck outta me as usual) took the stage to got a bit more technical. Which while most of it was bleh and expected we have streaming video etc. He did announce one major thing. WiiU will support up to 2 pads now instead of the 1 previously announced last year. Guess the public outcry over the past year has made them rethink that decision for the better.

Next up New Super Mario Bros. U,  integrates a new type of social comment tagging within the game. Looks really neat at a glance. Seems to work well with an over world map interface but I could see it easily being integrated with tons of other games.

Following this we got a A LOT of 3rd party reveals starting with a revamped Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition. It was introduced by pre-recording by the actress who plays Harley Quinn  We moved from this into a huge montage of game clips. Some of the games shown were Mass Effect 3, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tank! Tank! Tank!, Trine 2: Directors Cut, Ninja Gaiden 3, and more.

Next up the new Wii Fit U game, looks like more of the same and integrates the WiiPad as well as some sort of new device that looked  a basic step counter.

3DS took to the stage briefly to introduce New Super Mario Bros 2 which has a major focus on ‘gold’ or coins, and the newest addition to the Paper Mario franchise, Sticker Star. Also unveiled was a preview of the long awaited sequel to Luigi’s Mansion  subtitled Dark Moon. They promised more tomorrow night with an hour long presentation dedicated to 3DS.

What can I say about Lego City: Undercover. But after taking some time think about it,   seems like Grand Theft Auto Lego style but a lot more family friendly, There will be both a WiiU and a 3DS version.

They closed the show with a presentation for their new multi franchise integration game, Nintendoland. I honestly am not sure the presentation did this game justice, while at the same time it doesn’t seem to be much more than a pack in game similar to Wii Sports or Wii Play. Basicly the idea is it brings together tons of Nintendo franchises in the form of a theme park that you can take you Mii through and participate in 12 different attractions. It comes off as a collection of games like in a Mario Party title a bit more in-depth. The presentation seemed to drag on for ever and when they did show it we only saw a small bit of it. They spent too long on how a Luigi’s mansion themed find the ghost game worked.  I really  hope they don’t try to charge for this and it’s included with the system.

I wasn’t too impressed with Nintendo this year, they had a few new releases, but not what the fans were hoping for. They were  mostly games we have played already with a few new features for the Wii U. So why was there no mention of the two Zelda titles being worked on right now? Well Skyward Sword was released only six months ago.

Nintendo hasn’t been known to churn out all-new experiences one after the other too often; aside from Majora’s Mask or the Oracle duo, Nintendo has always been the sort of company that focuses on quality over quantity, and it has served them well. Short of a new game utilizing the Skyward Sword engine or a Majora’s Mask remake, we may have a long-ways to go until the next big reveal.

Not too thrilled that they only gave 3DS a few short minutes. Though we may have gotten nothing from the Nintendo regarding Zelda, there is still the possibility of a reveal at their upcoming 3DS event. Besides, the last we saw of Zelda for the 3DS was the Ocarina of Time remake in 2011 and the Link’s Awakening eShop release; if Nintendo is on the verge of giving us more Zelda, it will likely be for the 3DS.

The bottom line is even tho I have a better understanding of Wii U I’ll just stick the 3DS.

Sony’s Press Conference Recap at E3 2012

Sony certainly did quite the Press Event today, starting off with some maximum levels of dubstep.

Ubisoft’s Press Conference Recap at E3 2012

Well Ubisoft certainly kicked off their press conference with a bang. An annoying dance number of a bang, but a bang none-the-less. Starting the show they had rapper Flo Rida come out singing along with back-up dancers to a trailer for Just Dance 4, the next in the yearly series from Ubisoft. After that it was Aisha Tyler’s turn to take the stage as host of the press conference along with her co-host, Youtube’s Tobuscus. Like most guest hosts at Ubisoft’s Press Conferences these two came across as incredibly forced, but at least they were amusing at times. Now onto the rest of the show:

EA’s Press Conference Recap at E3 2012

Dead Space 3
Kicked off the show here with a nice Trailer and the mention of drop-in drop-out co-op. Scheduled for release February 13′ Isaac Clarke will return with a new companion by the name of John Carver.

Madden
I won’t claim any love or understanding for the Madden franchise myself. I can tell you as much as they have a new Infinity “Physics you can feel” engine and are introducing a new Connected Careers RPG type legacy level up system. It’s honestly much for me as I’ve never had much interest in it but maybe you can glean more from this bit than I did if you’re a sportsball fan.

SimCity
The original king and creator of the “Simulation” games is back and hitting hard. First up was a new Facebook game SimCity Social. Not many details were given but it looks like they took the graphical style of SimCity 2000 spruced it up and added Facebook style multiplayer elements. Honestly I think this is brilliant and will be a highly addictive social networking game. Available “soon”

SimCity as a true PC IP  is also set to return February  ’13.  In a word it looks GORGEOUS.  Everything about this update looks great right now, down the the little details of ‘dropping’ the buildings as you place them.

Battlefield 3
“Premium” Service has been announced and is available NOW for 49.99 USD.  The service provides new in game items, events, dogtags, cammo/weapon skins, and more. Also included is “Back to Karkand” and 5 expansion packs and introduces motorcycles to the game for the first time. Clearly aimed at competing with the Call of Duty Elite service.

Star Wars: The Old Republic
The game is going Free to Play (F2P) up to lvl 15 later this July. Also the Cathar race will become playable at some point this year.

Medal of Honor Warfighter
Overall it comes off pretty generic as far as shooters. Have a look at the trailer below for a bit of eye candies.

EA Sports
EA Sports announced some minor details a few other franchises: NHL will use a new skating engine this year. NBA Live will feature season long changes to the game though I thought they already did this myself. The biggest things came from Fifa in that they said Fifa 12 progress with levels and xp will transfer to the new Fifa 13′. Also a new iPhone app which will connect you to the game and their “Football club”.

The biggest announcement though for them came in the form of a multi year deal with UFC to acquire the IP. I find this rather amusing as I remember Dana White swearing off going to them at some point in the past. I wonder how large of a truck of money they dumped in his yard to get that.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted
EA finally had the brains to go back to the well on this one. Also seems like they added a bit of burnout to it but not so heavy it changes the gameplay. Focus this time around is becoming the most wanted among your friends. Sounds good to me. Why are you still reading? Go watch this!

Crysis 3
They ended the show with Crysis 3 which is as could be expected beautiful. Never tried it myself but I hear nothing but good things. So enjoy some more eye candies! This was the end after that, rather abruptly I might add. Almost like they cut the cameras and showed something secret.

[Via Constantly Calibrating]

Microsoft’s Press Conference Recap at E3 2012

If you didn’t get to watch E3 yesterday today’s your lucky day, here’s a recap of Microsoft’s Press Conference.