The Launch Day crew (including yours truly) discuss more games highlighted at E3 2015. Adam Sessler, Jessica Villarreal, Jeff Cannata, and me discuss the trends, topics and future of gaming.
Tag Archive: E3
The Big Question: Can Injustice: Gods Among Us deliver a quality fighter using DC Comics characters?
The last time we saw our favorite heroes from the DCU mix it up in a classic-style fighting game, it was 2008 and it was one of Midway Games’ final projects: DC Universe vs. Mortal Kombat. Those who were able to look past the spectacle of seeing our favorite heroes mix it up with magical ninjas and underworld wizards though saw the game was flawed from the get go and so it was quickly swept under the rug.
Last year then, one of Midway’s key franchises in Mortal Kombat, now under the new banner of Netherrealm Studios and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, saw a renaissance with parallel dimensions, a slimmed down roster, and a bevy of new modes to offer replay-ability rarely seen in any fighting game of that nature. The positive response and new look at how to do an old-school fighting game got the folks at Netherrealm thinking that maybe doing a fighting game with DC Heroes wasn’t such a stretch after all. And with Warner Bros.’ backing, as they also have all the rights to the DC characters, it should be much easier than last time to consult and push out a higher quality product that appeals to both comic book and fighting game fans.
So legendary game maker Ed Boon unveiled to us at E3 2012 Injustice: Gods Among Us. This brand new fighting game takes place entirely in the DCU and uses a modified version of last year’s Mortal Kombat engine. Injustice will feature 20-30 characters, including the already revealed Harley Quinn, Solomon Grundy, Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman, and the Flash, and capitalize on the larger-than-life personalities at their disposal with massive arenas to do battle in and even more massive finishing and special maneuvers inspired by the spandex-clad superheroes’ most impressive moments. For example, Superman can actually fly his opponent up into orbit before then slamming them back to the Earth below to do massive damage.
One nagging problem that could hold this game back though is the same thing that crept into the story mode of DCU vs MK and that is how will Netherrealm level the playing field between humans like Batman and near-omnipotent beings like Superman? We’ve been assured that the story will work this all out for us, but it was supposed to back in 2008 as well. Maybe the interactive environments allowing you to fire missiles out of the Batmobile at your opponent or slam them through a skyscraper will allow us to overlook the story though as long as it makes a reasonable amount of sense. And you hope it does because with the great visuals we saw, tight looking game play, and over-the-top action, this fighter is surely shaping up to be a contender to be reckoned with.
Are you folks excited for this game? Does the thought of 2008’s MK vs DCU still make you worry about Injustice? What characters do you want to see make it into the title? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!
A little less Private Ryan, a little more Inglourious Basterds
“We wanted to get back to a bit more of the rock ‘n’ roll spirit. To do that, we wanted to get you off the front lines, stop being a grunt, and doing the same old Normandy-to-Berlin run.”
—Stuart Black, creative director, Enemy Front
When asked how City Interactive’s WWII first-person shooter, Enemy Front, would differ from WWII games we’ve seen in the past, Stuart Black, veteran of Black and Viking: Battle for Asgard, talked candidly about just wanting to kick ass and take names—and he’s made a few design decisions in order to ensure just that. As insinuated in the quote, the path your characters will take through Nazi-occupied Europe doesn’t end on Berlin’s doorstep. Instead, you’ll start in Dunkirk sneaking behind enemy lines during an Allied retreat, move on to Poland to help the resistance and assault a Hitler think tank, and then take on a secret base in Norway at the game’s climax, wreaking havoc on the Nazi war machine all along the way.
Black’s story is also moving away from the drama and relationships of soldiers in a unit serving on the front lines. Plenty of war movies served as inspiration for this game—but Saving Private Ryan wasn’t one of them. Instead, your character’s an old-school badass in the vein of vintage Clint Eastwood. Just one man taking down entire platoons of Nazis all by himself…and getting the hot French chick in the end after doing it.
But it wouldn’t be a Stuart Black game if you didn’t get great feedback on the chaos you’re creating. Destructible environments—filled with tons of exploding barrels, of course—and different, more obscure weapons than you’d typically see in a WWII shooter will help make this a bang-up confrontation of the Axis versus the Allies. And, yeah, even though we all know how WWII ends, Enemy Front looks to bring fresh experiences to our grandfathers’ war. All I know is that with all the “future war” games currently in vogue, it’s nice to see a developer remember their roots—and remind us of them as well.
THE BUZZ: Amid a swirl of internet rumors, and shortly after Sony insinuated they would not reveal new hardware this year themselves, Microsoft has said that nothing new will be seen from them in 2012 either.
EGM’S TAKE: In an interview with French website Lepoint.Fr, Cedrick Delmax, the Microsoft France Marketing Director, said (assumedly in French before being translated) that Microsoft is not looking to reveal new hardware this year.
“Xbox 360′s cycle is not at all finished. The proof is that we don’t see the logic in cutting the price this year. E3 is still premature. What’s certain is that there’ll be nothing new in 2012,” said Delmax specifically in his statement.
Saying that E3 is premature likely means that indeed a mid-June reveal as originally rumored is just that: a rumor. And that surely takes a 2012 hardware release off the shelf. But even if the new hardware wasn’t slated until 2013, the lack of a reveal must be disheartening for fans that were salivating at the thought of seeing something this year. Plus, it wouldn’t be out of character for Microsoft to promise big things in a distant future as they did the same thing with the Kinect by showing it off a couple years before its release. Thus, a 2012 E3 reveal did make sense to a lot of folks.
So, now with Sony saying they would be the last to announce something (to see all of what Sony said on the possibility of their new console, check out Matthew Bennett’s article here), the question now becomes is this a sick game of console chicken? Are both Microsoft and Sony just going to stand back to see who flinches first? Or is it more to see if Nintendo can pull themselves up by their bootstraps after disheartening sales over the past year, especially for the Wii, and if the Wii-U stumbles out of the gate, then announce something to go in for the kill? Or if the Wii-U works well, then steal some of Nintendo’s ideas and incorporate them into their own next-gen system for maybe a 2014 release? I think possibly a little from column A and a little column B in that case, but only time will tell in the end. Not to mention, this could all just be a red herring to try to keep our expectations low as sometimes Microsoft just can’t help themselves when they get a chance to steal the show at E3.
What do you folks think? Disappointed by the news? Is it a red herring? Do you think Nintendo’s plans are influencing either Sony or Microsoft? Let us know your thoughts with comments below!
Originally Published: June 21, 2011, on EGMNOW.COM
A WAR OF THE WORLDS
WHAT ITS ABOUT: Set in the early 1960s, the world is under attack from an unknown alien force. As a member of the secret government organization known as XCOM, you must put together a crack field team to analyze and somehow subdue this threat to humanity.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: This franchise reboot sees a major facelift from the original’s tactical tradition. Not just a first-person shooter, XCOM will put your wits to the test in not only building and leveling up your team, but also how you act in the field. Will you capture enemy weaponry for personal upgrades later or turn them against their alien masters right in the middle of the fray? The choices are near endless.
WHAT RAY THINKS: Easily one of the longest demos at E3, I wouldn’t have minded seeing even more. XCOM has a strong, cinematic feel while mixing in elements of both Bioshock and Mass Effect. Weird and wonderful weaponry will constantly be at your fingertips while you command your units on the fly in the field and also dish out as much punishment as you can yourself from the first-person perspective. I can’t wait!
-Ray Carsillo
Originally Published: June 21, 2011, on EGMNOW.COM
IT’S GONNA BE A SLOBBERKNOCKER!
WHAT ITS ABOUT: This is the latest installment of THQ’s hit yearly WWE wrestling franchise, which sees a much needed facelift while still featuring some of the sports entertainment business’s biggest names.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: This franchise had been just coasting along up until last year’s revolutionary online Royal Rumble feature. But that was only the beginning as this year’s entry marks not only a branding change that falls in line with the WWE’s slow movement to dissolve the rivalry between their RAW and Smackdown TV programs, but adds a brand new submission system and new “Predator” gameplay mechanics in honor of the game’s cover boy, Randy Orton.
WHAT RAY THINKS: I was able to take control of “The Awesome One” himself, The Miz, for a brief demo against a CPU Randy Orton and was amazed at not only how smooth the new animations for the game seemed, but how much easier it was to just pick up and play, which should please old and new fans alike. I just hope they work out the glitch that wouldn’t let me pin Orton after performing four finishers before November’s launch.
Originally Published: June 14, 2011 on EGMNOW.COM
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Your four-man Ghost Recon squad is placed on the front lines of an unknown international war. As they progress across a variety of terrains including the Arctic and Africa, the Ghosts begin to realize that there is more going on behind the scenes than they thought possible.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE: This latest installment in the Ghost Recon series sees you handle some of the most advanced tech yet imagined, including the highly touted “optical camouflage” which renders the user virtually invisible to foes unless they are wearing thermo-goggles. With a mixing and matching of weaponry and a high variety of scenarios placed before you, this could raise the bar once again for the tactical shooter.
WHAT RAY THINKS: I simply could not get enough of the A.T.L.A.S. augmented reality system that feeds the player information on the battlefield like never before. It allows you to work with a rare sense of precision and timing that will have those wannabe tacticians out there jumping for joy. Include with your plethora of futuristic weapons and devices the fact you can modify them to your personal style with the Gunsmith system and the future can’t get here soon enough.
Originally Published: July 7, 2010, on Lundberg.me, Examiner.com, Original-Gamer.com, PlayerAffinity.com, and ESPNNewYork.com
I know that E3 was three weeks ago, but with the craziness of the World Cup, NBA Free Agency, and the approaching MLB All-Star break, to say we’ve been a little busy here at ESPN would be an understatement. But in our spare time, my expert cameraman/editor Jared Bodden and I, have been toiling away trying to finish these videos to show you some of the great games we saw at E3 and bring you some exclusive interviews with the people behind those games.
One of the most difficult things in this process has been whittling down what we felt were the most worthwhile games to look at, so we broke it down into four videos. The first video is a compilation featuring online and DLC games with the following three videos being a summary of the rest of the best from each day. For the games that we had to cut for the sake of time, I apologize tremendously. I also wish we could have given every game we did feature their own special video.
On that note, without further ado, below is the culmination of my three days at the L.A. Convention Center for E3 2010. I hope you all enjoy.
The first video was my online/DLC game special that features looks at the new Deadliest Warrior game from Spike Games that comes out next Tuesday, DCU Online from Sony Online Entertainment, QuickHit.com and their brand new NFL license, and Blacklight: Tango Down from Ignition Entertainment.
Our first day at E3 was a special day overall and had us see some spectacular looking games for consoles. Our video of Day 1 features Tron and Epic Mickey from Disney Entertainment, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow from Konami, and Test Drive Unlimited 2 from Atari.
On the second day of E3, console games and their peripherals were well represented once more as we looked at Vanquish from SEGA, Shaun White Skateboarding and Ghost Recon: Future Solider from Ubisoft, WWE All-Stars from THQ, and the new Wii Exercise Bike from Big Ben Interactive.
On the last day of E3, we had a chance to look at some of the most hyped games for consoles and some sweet accessories when we looked at Call of Duty: Black Ops and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions from Activision and some sweet products from Nyko and iGUGU.
Videos by Jared Bodden
-Ray Carsillo
Originally Published: June 29, 2010, on ESPNNewYork.com, PlayerAffinity.com, Original-Gamer.com, Examiner.com, and Lundberg.me
He revolutionized the extreme sports video game genre and put skateboarding on the map in a way no one else could. Of course, the only man I could be talking about is the legendary Tony Hawk.
I had a chance before E3 officially got underway, and Activision threw their mega-concert, to catch up with the skate legend and to talk to him about his new game coming out this fall, Tony Hawk’s Shred from Activision. We also chatted about what he thought his legacy was and what it was like to turn the video game world on its head.
Check out my interview at E3 2010 with skate legend Tony Hawk below!
Originally Published: June 28, 2010, on ESPNNewYork.com, PlayerAffinity.com, Original-Gamer.com, Lundberg.me, and Examiner.com.
I had a chance on the second day of E3 to speak with Joseph Olin, the President of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, an organization whose primary purpose is to promote computer and video game entertainment.
Joseph and I talked about everything from the current and possible future states of the gaming industry to the influence sports and casual gaming has nowadays on gaming.
Check out my interview with Joseph Olin, the President of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences below!
RayCarsilloWrites.com 