The E3 2013 Thread

[calgoblin]

Next week is essentially the national week of gamers, in which many enthusiasts and press flock to the Los Angeles Convention Centre to get the first peek at all the juicy new games on offer in the coming months.

It all kicks off on the 10th of June with the Microsoft conference, where the company will defend its new Xbox One's questionable DRM, it's lack of backwards compatibility and it's new 2001 inspired Kinect. After M'soft somehow manage to claw some dignity back after a pretty disastrous reveal, Sony will reveal the design of their new console and are boasting to showcase 40 new games. Then the publishers will take to the stage, revealing all the brand new games they will soon be releasing, such as Call of Duty Ghosts, Fifa 903, Tiger Woods Golfthing 2014 and possibly one game for the WiiU.

So what are you looking forward to in hearing from the E3 show this year? As Rockstar announced they're not going to show off GTAV at E3, I'm looking forward to seeing what surprises other studios have been working on.

This thread will get updated throughout the week with lots of lovely news and videos of games and as well as whatever stupid things Microsoft say in their conference, so we can enjoy pretty screenshots and laugh at the memes that come out of it.


Never know aye?

 

[Maniche]

Please be Half-Life 3, please be Half-Life 3!

Maniche

 

[General Naga]

Half-Life 3, Half-Life 3, Half-Life 3, Half-Life 3, Half-Life 3, Half-Life 3, Half-Life 3

Possibly Source[sup]2[/sup]?

 

[Nic727]

Brother in arms???

 

[calgoblin]

Microsoft announced many things today, my favourite being a new Halo game, with the only details announced being that it is in fact a Halo game, has dedicated servers, and will run at 60fps. Woah, don't get reveal too much you'll give us all heartburn.

Dead Rising 3 was also announced as an Xbox One exclusive, which I'm very disappointed about. I'd post the gameplay trailer, but seeing as no one will be able to play it why bother? But to contradict my previous sentence about no one buying the Xbone, the console has apparently received more pre-orders on Amazon UK than the PS4. However, will this be the same once Sony show off their release plans later this week?

Confusingly, Microsoft also revealed a new Xbox 360. Yeah, I don't know why either.

PC game World of Tanks will also be coming to the 360 later this year, so Xbox users will be able to play the epic F2P tank game this summer, and Crytek detailed Ryse: Son of Rome on show, another Xbone exclusive. But thankfully, there was no Half Life 3 Xbox One exclusive as feared above.

But perhaps, the news that came out before E3 even started may have already stolen the show. Yep, you guessed right, it was the fact that in Call of Duty: Ghosts you can play as the dog! Whether this is the innovative direction Activision & Infinity Ward are taking with their new game where in each level you can play as a different animal, or whether it's just another lame rail section like in previous games. Despite leaning towards the latter being the reality, Call of Duty: Animal Warfare would be one hell of a sequel.

Expect more games that more people will be able to play later tonight with the EA and Ubisoft conferences.

 

[hannibaldinski]

I only want a better kinect. I want to program epic stuff with that thing.

 

[calgoblin]

Soon you can!

Caught part of the EA conference, have a Battlefront 4 on the way, new Peggle (woo) and the Battlefield 4 multiplayer preview had a whole skyscraper being brought down by the other team O.O . Shall find a video of it soon.

 

[calgoblin]

I like Sonys burns.

Here's the new Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. Pretty weird to see Popcap making an actual 3rd person action game, but it looks really interesting and I look forward to running round as the Chomper.

 

[General Naga]

You've got to like Sony, if only for their sense of humour

Also PvZ in 3D? Absolutely crazy idea so I naturally love the idea!

 

[calgoblin]

So much LOLs

 

[calgoblin]

What are Microsoft doing? Every single one of their executives needs to be taught a thing or two about selling your product before the thing is even out yet. Or, they need to understand that a lot of the world isn't ready for an always-online console. My internet frequently goes down; if you moved house, went on holiday, took it to a friends, the console suddenly becomes a huge paperweight. This and the news the company will only be providing Xbox Live for the Xbox One in 21 countries, and as we've already learnt with no connection to Microsofts servers you won't be able to play a game on the console anyway, that means if you live in Greece, Portugal, Poland or even Japan, you can't buy an Xbox One.

From the video above: "stick with Xbox if you don't have internet." Erm, I'm pretty sure if people want to play new games they'll opt for a PS4 or a PC rather than hanging onto your foolish desires and sticking with a 360 just because 'Microsoft told me to'. Msofts consistent pushing of their new technology simply because 'we say you need it' is ruining them, they've made a console for a market that doesn't seem to exist, and saying "don't buy our console if you don't have internet, buy the one that doesn't need internet" is easily the last nail in the coffin of this PR disaster.

Are used games a problem anyway? I'll finish up my rant with a quote from Shigeru Miyamoto:

"From our perspective you want to create a game that people will want to keep and keep playing for a long time. That's the approach that we always take and that's the best way to avoid used games.

There you go Microsoft, make games people don't want to get rid of and you might find people start to like you again.

/End Rant

 

[Sir Apple]

It looks to me that the PS4 is currently winning. I've seen and hear countless Xbox players switch sides at this point.

 

[Sir Apple]

Haha. http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/06/19/confirmed-microsoft-change-xbox-one-drm-policies/

 

[calgoblin]

Definitely was the worst E3 Microsoft will ever have: Announces DRM; gets lots of hate for DRM; defends DRM - 'it is the future' after all; receives hate for arrogance and hatred towards its fanbase; continues to defend DRM; offends the Navy; backtracks on all DRM. It's a good thing, but I won't be able to forget how awfully Microsoft handled this.

 

[Sir Apple]

Yeah. Its funny though, they are trying to use the fact of them taking back DRM to their advantage by saying "we listen to our fans and community blah blah blah" - completely ignoring their own failure on this entire subject.

 

[calgoblin]

When what they mean is 'we messed up completely and we're only going back on it because everyone, including the 'morons' we tried to sell it to, wouldn't give us their money'.

 

[_Franky_]

Actually, it is strange how Microsoft had a much stronger press conference than Sony. I'm really not a Microsoft fan, so it means something if I give them credit. Sony however made Microsoft's strong presentation completely evaporate by simply saying "We will not require an internet connection."

The reaction of the public just blew my mind! It makes no sense to me how most people are not able to look past what is happening on the surface. So Microsoft basically mimicked what Steam has been doing all these years in order to provide some additional interesting functionality to their customers. 3rd party publishers were free to choose whether or not to implement this form of "DRM".

Then Sony says, we will not have this form of DRM on 1st party games, everything stays the way it is, but publishers are free to implement any kind of DRM they like.

People go apeshit. Sony wins.

What?!?

How about talking about, um, GAMES?!?!?

On this front, Microsoft had a much stronger showing (albeit, they were trying to recover lost ground from their announcement presentation a month earlier where the focus was on TV & sports for some reason.) And MS delivered. They opened with MGS 5, followed by many cool titles like Project Spark, Ryse, Titanfall, Dead Rising 3, Crimson Dragon, a new Killer Instinct, Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive... Holy **** I tells ya, that was one crazy presentation. (I watched everything that happened that day live, so I feel I have a good perspective).

Sony on the other hand did not have as strong a showing when it came to actual games. Even though personally, I am still in favor of Sony, in my opinion, their E3 showing could have been much stronger. Their unified system architecture gives them the edge over Xbox One without a shadow of a doubt. Microsoft has not even officially made a spec sheet available of their new console. This leads me to believe that they know that they cant shake a stick at Sony's offering. All the while Sony are selling the PS4 at a sweet price point of 399$.

And whatever Sony Santa Monica is cooking up has really gotten me excited, even if no actual gameplay has been shown.
Anyways, my point is this, leave the DRM issues out of the equation and look at what really matters. Games, price & system architecture! I want to see who has the better exclusives, because multi-platform titles will still reign supreme on PC. And from my experience, Sony has just shown more initiative with better exclusives during the PS3 days on that front, especially in the later life cycle.

Microsoft has yet to win me over again, but they are on the right track if you ask me. Ideally, I will have both consoles under my TV (along with a WiiU just for Bayonetta 2) but if I have to make a decision which console to get first, I will give my money to Sony for now.

And Hanni is right, Kinect is really cool, but I don't really need or want it to be a part of my games system...

Either way, I am glad the whole DRM is mooted for now and we can move on to the important things like, INFAMOUS LOOKS AMAZING!

[video=youtube;Uibnf_Q_51s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uibnf_Q_51s[/video]

 

[calgoblin]

And Microsoft announced that the new Kinect will come out for PC as well, which is really where it's usage is best. I agree with you, but it was also a lot to do with their attitude towards it; "buy our console because we say you need it". The difference with Steam is that gamers trust them, and you can go offline when you want.

But anyway, done now; I'm sure I'll end up with a PS4 at some point I have all the others.

 

[_Franky_]

True indeed, but people were not all too fond of Steam either when it first launched with Half-Life 2
But yeah, after owning a 360 this generation, I also came to the conclusion that Microsoft can be a real bunch of corporate d*cks and they pissed me off in so many ways as a customer.