e3 2012
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PowerA's phone controller is almost as cool as its iPhone Star Wars cases
PowerA predicts it will earn $50 million in retail revenue from its line of Skylanders accessories alone this year. Up next it's built some Medal of Honor: Warfighter controllers and will unveil its "MOGA" mobile gaming controller, the latter of which you can check out in the gallery below, along with an Arkham City batarang controller and other goodies.Oh, and it has a lineup of pretty awesome iPhone 4 Star Wars cases to match the Star Wars notification sounds you already have enabled on your mobile phone. Nerd.%Gallery-157431%
IndieCade at E3: The haunting of A Valley Without Wind
I'm being haunted by A Valley Without Wind.After writing up its Indie Pitch, I believed it would venture forth into the cold, discriminating world of indie game launches with an extra bullet in its magazine, but that I would be largely uninvolved and perhaps unaware of its performance, as I have to believe with most indie games that ping my inbox. Instead, A Valley Without Wind and its developer, Arcen Games, began to appear in my daily news feed. A whisper of beta updates. The flash of a major-outlet review. A piercing launch on Steam. And now, the biggest shock of all: A spot in E3's IndieCade exhibition.So finally, I gave in and played A Valley Without Wind, hoping to exorcise its presence from my Twitter feed – though like the antagonists of most ghost movies, I doubt this one will leave me alone for long.
Scribblenauts Unlimited and the birth of the ferret-headed librarian-throwing lamp
Scribblenauts Unlimited on Wii U has a lot of new stuff not found in its predecessors, like an open world full of both traditional Scribblenauts levels and simple "Starite shard" challenges (requiring you to make one item on the spot, basically), fancy HD graphics, and multiplayer.But by far the most revolutionary improvement for the sequel (in a series whose every improvement is pretty dang revolutionary) is the item editor, which lets you take any single item and change its color, add other items (or components thereof) to it, and then even change its behavior.For example, I started with a "lamp." I painted the shade three different colors -- is argyle a color? -- and then generated a "ferret," whose head I detached and stuck to the top of the lamp. Why not. Then, I altered the properties of the lamp so that the lamp was alive. Then I made it a weapon. I set it so that it was the kind that shoots projectiles, and I replaced the standard "bullet" with "librarian," resulting in a constant arc of librarians issuing forth.If, like me, you're proud of your work, you'll be able to share your items online. If you can't solve a problem with a regular item, why not ... mutate it cruelly?
PDP Afterglow 2.0 controllers and stereo wireless headset hands-on
Here at E3, PDP is showing off a handful of new gaming accessories for those looking to jump on the third-party bandwagon. The company has refreshed its line of Afterglow controllers that now sport a second edition label. Much like the previous models, the family will include accessories for PS3, Xbox 360 and two for Wii. The major difference that you'll notice is a portion of the peripherals is now black -- a bit of a departure from the clear interior-lit controllers that we've seen previously. In addition to the recharged versions of the Afterglow add-ons, the outfit also allowed us to go ears-on with a wireless stereo gaming headset that will sport the same illuminated moniker. Here, you'll have your choice for either white or black (and then red, blue or green interiors) for the set of cans that provide a quite cozy fit -- thanks in part to the extra padding around the earcups. We gave them a spin with latest Call of Duty offering and were quite pleased with the sound quality, too. Three sound modes provide a bit of customization, allowing you to choose between pure audio, bass boost and 3D expander listening pre-sets. An LED on the tip of the unit's mic will keep you informed as to which selection you've made. Speaking of controls, all of the in-game adjustments that you'll need to make can be easily done from the left side. You can expect around 10 hours of gameplay on a single charge, an auxiliary jack for your mobile devices and connection to your console via USB dongle. When the headset arrives in September, it will set you back $89.95 and play nice with PS3, Xbox, Wii and PC. If you're still curious about further visual details, head for the gallery below and take a closer look. %Gallery-157628%
DICE+ wants to team with screens and usher in an era of powered board games (hands-on)
We learned about DICE+, the digital chance cube, just before E3, and today we finally got to give it a few rolls and find out a bit more about DICE+ from the folks who made it. It's an inch-sized cube with a soft-touch rubbery finish that's packed with a Bluetooth radio and a rechargeable battery. For now, it juiced up via microUSB, but an induction charging version is also in the works. Its power cell grants up to 20 hours of continuous rolling, or a little over a week for non-gambling degenerates. Speaking of, the cube's maker, GIC, said a major point of emphasis in the cube's design was getting the balance of the thing just right to ensure the randomness of DICE + results -- and it's even spoken with casino companies about their tolerance requirements in that area. While DICE + may find its way onto craps tables eventually, for now, its maker's focused on what it calls "powered board games."%Gallery-157624% You see, while we're all familiar with board game mechanics -- roll a die/spin a wheel and move your game piece accordingly -- they don't translate well to the digital realm. People don't trust a computer to give truly random results, and tapping a screen to "roll" dice gets boring quickly. That's the beauty of DICE+, players get all the advantages of a digital board game, like animations and greater interactivity, without the aforementioned downside because it engages them in a satisfying, familiar fashion. Join us after the break for our impressions, and a bit more info about this throwback gadget.
Killer Wireless-N 1202 WiFi / Bluetooth cards in Alienware gaming laptops eyes-on
Last month, Dell announced that its Alienware gaming laptops would be outfitted with Qualcomm Atheros' Killer Wireless-N 1202 WiFi cards. Aside from sporting low-latency capabilities, the add-on also sports some Bluetooth connectivity. Here at E3, we were able to spend some time with the tech to see just how the component and its accompanying software prioritizes your bandwidth and keeps your Call of Duty multi-player sessions in the #1 slot. The Killer application allows you to set different priority levels for anything that would claim a chunk of your internet connection. For example, if you keep your title of choice in the top spot, the tech will only download files or access websites whenever World of Warcraft isn't trying to send hi-pri info across the interwebs. By default the rankings are as follows from high to low: games, real-time chat (Skype), buffer-tolerant programs (Netflix and iTunes) and file transfer or low-level systems utilities. Until the end of June, you'll only be able to snag the tech in Dell's gaming laptops. We laid our peepers on the interface at the Alienware booth, so hit up the gallery below to take a look at what you can expect with the UI.
Bleszinski explains why Gears of War: Judgment isn't about E-Day or the Pendulum Wars
Gears of War: Judgment is a prequel, and takes place a few months after Emergence Day when the Locust first popped their heads up from underground and began their assault on the human population of Sera.But fans have wondered why Epic didn't aim to highlight a different part of the timeline in the Gears of War universe – like E-Day or the Pendulum Wars, the great 79-year-long war that raged across Sera. The COG (Coalition of Ordered Governments) won the Pendulum Wars, and became the global government of Sera.Both sound like good settings for a video game, right? Sure, but according to Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski, neither would've made for the right game – the latter wouldn't have even been a Gears of War game."The time came, we finished Gears 3 and obviously it's done well for us, and a prequel seemed like the next logical step. So we started looking at the timeframes and what we could do. I looked at E-Day and was like, 'Yeah, there's no chainsaw on E-Day.' It took the COG a little bit to figure out that the Locust have thick skin and their bayonets are breaking, things like that." Being able to chainsaw scary monster men is essential to anything donning the Gears of War title, you see.As for the Pendulum Wars, its human-on-human conflict would technically make for a game that isn't Gears of War. "Now you have no chainsaw and now you have no monsters," Bleszinski said. "And now we're not Gears of War anymore. So we looked at the timeframe, looked at the timeline, and figured that there's a window there of several months after Emergence Day, where humanity got hit and quickly got their shit back together and figured out, hey, put a chainsaw on the end of the gun – that'll help. So that's the timeframe for the game."Gears of War: Judgment launches on the Xbox 360 in early 2013.%Gallery-157621%
Wii U lead isn't important, contends Sony's Rohde
Sony isn't talking next-gen at this year's E3. Nor is Microsoft. Nintendo's Wii U, however, got its big debut this week, and the console is planned for a holiday 2012 launch. As we learned in the last hardware generation and the generation before that, being the first out of the gate in terms of launching hardware can mean the difference between first and third place. SCEA Senior VP of Product Development and worldwide studios Scott Rohde, however, isn't worried about the potential for Wii U to lead the next hardware generation due to its launch lead."Not at all. That's the simple answer," he told Joystiq in an interview this week. "In very similar fashion to the way I'm talking about game development," he said, referencing Sony's hands-off approach to internal game development. "We have a very strong vision in what we believe we're gonna do for the next generation. And we're not talking about it at all yet," he added with a smile."The reality is let's build a great machine. And we'll talk about it then." With Unreal Engine 4 getting a big debut recently, and it being held up as the harbinger of the next hardware generation, we expect we'll be hearing from both Sony about that potentially "great machine" not too long from now.
E3 2012: InnoGames talks pirate MMOs, strategy titles, and games for women
At this year's E3, we had a nice long chat with German studio InnoGames about its MMO repertoire. The company actually started out quite small with three college buddies, who released their first game only to their close friends. That game, Tribal Wars, and its original servers are still around, albeit with some updated graphics to keep things looking fresh, but we wanted to focus on the team's more recent offerings. While InnoGames has several titles under its belt, including Bounty Hounds, we focused primarily on Kartuga, a pirate-themed strategy MMO; Lagoonia, a social building game created by and aimed at women; and Forge of Empires, which is similar to the Age of Empires series. All three games are free-to-play browser games, and we even got a pinch of hands-on time.
Epic's Rein on Epic Baltimore and saving 'awesome guys' from 38 Studios' Big Huge Games
Epic Baltimore, the new studio formed by Epic Games from the senior staff of 38 Studios' Big Huge Games, was a surprise announcement this past Sunday. Well, it's not like there was much warning for anyone, really, as Epic's VP and co-founder Mark Rein explained to us today at E3, giving much of the credit regarding the studio's creation to Epic president Mike Capps."Mike is the total hero there. They called him on Wednesday, interested in using one of our IPs. He flew them up the next day and they met with a whole bunch of people, and the board of directors of Epic. We made the call right there: 'These guys are awesome, we need to work with them.'""We don't have a final headcount yet. It's a decent number," Rein replied when asked about how many of the approximately 100 employees of Big Huge Games were going to be employed by Epic Baltimore. He told us they already had 40 resumes from BHG employees before the deal even went through. "Many of the people there had already gone on to places. This was just the core group of really experience guys who already had savings saved up that they tried to build a team and find a deal."Rein also emphasized that they "wanted to work with one of Epic's IPs" and "it was a very good, natural fit."With Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2 already in pre-production, we asked if Rein had any interest in buying Amalur from Rhode Island?"We don't buy IP, we make IP."
OnLive Multiview on an LG Google TV, eyes-on (video)
Between the giant screen gaming demos, the shiny new hardware and the ever-present booth babes, the Electronic Entertainment Expo may well be the short attention span capital of North America at the moment. How does one possible manage to up the ante on electronic attention deficit disorder? Nintendo and Microsoft have both made pretty admirable strives in that direction with the Wii U GamePad and SmartGlass, respectively, bringing a second screen to home game play. OnLive is helping move things along as well, by way of the MultiView feature, which brings several screens worth of content to a single display -- in other words, you have other games taking up screen real estate while you're playing a game. OnLive's Spectate feature is nothing new, of course, letting you keep tabs on friends and scores of other players. MultiView, however, lets you watch that content while playing, the majority of the screen devoted to your own game, with this added footage in a sidebar. You can access the feature with the click of a button and chat with friends or coordinate with teammates. OnLive showed us the feature on an LG G2 Google TV -- the perfect opportunity for the company to highlight the new partnership. The 55-inch display also served as an ideal demo -- while the feature will also be available for mobile devices, you're really going to want a big screen, lest the whole thing become a little too cacophonous.
Reality Pump's Sacrilegium takes survival horror to modern Romania in 2013
Sacrilegium, the next game from Two Worlds developer Reality Pump is just a little different from its previous fantasy-driven efforts. Taking a break from orcs and wizards, Sacrilegium is a survival horror title set in modern day Romania – and yes, Vlad the Impaler does figure in there somewhere, though Reality Pump is keeping mum on the subject until Gamescom later this year.The story follows Alex – a 20-year-old Californian college student who is "fully aware of her breathtaking beauty," though "she never is looking to use it to her advantage" – as she battles vampires whilst traveling the land on an "appropriated police motorbike." The game promises cinematic combat, quick time events and "ultra-realistic motion capture," all powered by Reality Pump's new GRACE 2 engine.We were told by publisher TopWare that Reality Pump hopes to return survival horror to its PlayStation 1 roots, eschewing modern horror's tendency for maximum firepower and jump scares in favor of more atmospheric terror. Somewhat paradoxically, the game is also promising a "deadly arsenal will whet all appetites."Sacrilegium is slated for a Q2 2013 release on PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U. Check out the first screens and concept art in the gallery below.
A conversation with Microsoft's Marc Whitten on SmartGlass and the quest for a better living room
Microsoft SmartGlass hands-on Xbox SmartGlass: did Microsoft just render the Wii U controller obsolete? Microsoft's Marc Whitten: SmartGlass is the 'enabling technology' of IE on Xbox 360 What good is a surprise if you already saw it coming? When I mention to Microsoft's Marc Whitten, corporate vice president of Xbox Live and the man who has shepherded SmartGlass to its debut, that we kind-of-sort-of knew that his baby was set to be announced at E3 before the company got a chance to do so, he lets out a frustrated laugh. "Yeah..." He'd hoped the unveiling at the company's pre-show keynote would be the first time we, and everyone else in the industry, got eyes on the fruit of his and his team's labors. But, when I tell him we were still genuinely surprised at the scope of SmartGlass, and genuinely impressed at the potential, he seems genuinely pleased and reminds us that what we've seen is "all just the beginning." Join us after the break for an exploration of what comes next for Microsoft SmartGlass.
E3 2012: RIFT shows Storm Legion's Tower of Dawn, confirms digital CE
While we got a great preview of some of the excitement coming with this fall's RIFT: Storm Legion expansion at E3, the public was treated to a "sneak peek" livestream from the press room by the devs. The livestreamed some of the content we've seen already, such as the clockwork dungeon and the mighty colossus attack, but also dropped a few new surprises as well. When asked if the expansion will have a collector's edition, the dev confirmed that it probably will have a digital CE. He then laughed that he probably let the cat out of the bag on that one. He was reluctant to show the in-game map of the new continents, however, explaining that they are a work in progress. The Trion Worlds team also demoed a special interior for the first time, the Tower of Dawn. While not a proper dungeon, the tower will be an expansive and dangerous location to explore. The dev said that players were asking for more interiors to explore, hence why Trion took the time to make it. You can scope out some of our screengrabs from the livestream after the break!
E3 2012: Perfect World's RaiderZ isn't Monster Hunter Online
Action combat seems to be the name of the game for MMOs at this year's E3. While tab-targeting is nice for eating pizza and raiding, sometimes you want something more visceral, so we have some top contenders for you today. RaiderZ is Perfect World Entertainment's newest action-based MMO, and while some people have an issue with its name, I've heard others note, in both positive and negative lights, its similarity to another game series very dear to my heart. I say that the comparison is a bit unfair to Perfect World, since what the studio has created isn't just different -- in some ways, it's better, especially if you're a fan of MMOs, which, if you're reading Massively, you probably are. Since I know some console folks (even me!) have been thinking it for a while, let's just say it out loud and get it over with: RaiderZ is a Monster Hunter clone! Got it out of your system? Good. Now go wash your mouth out with soap.
E3 2012: Origins of Malu brings player-created factions, housing, and exploration to the sandbox
It's hard to remain completely objective about Origins of Malu. The sci-fantasy title from Burning Dog Media is a project I've been watching personally for quite a while now, both because of its ambitious design goals and because of the sandbox affinity displayed by the dev team. At this week's E3, I finally got to put names with faces when I met with senior developer Jason Mitchell and programmer Chris Shaw. The pair had plenty of interesting tidbits to share, and despite the fact that I haven't put my hands on an Origins build yet, it remains very near the top of my most-anticipated-MMOs list. Join me after the cut for some chit-chat about action combat, player-created factions, PvP (yes there are safe zones), and more.
Getting crafty with LittleBigPlanet Karting
While touring the Sony booth at E3, we sat down with United Front Games design director William Ho to talk about LittleBigPlanet Karting. Check out the video above to learn how the studio is translating the vision of LittleBigPlanet into a completely customizable racer.
E3 2012: Hands-on with Webzen's C9 and the Witchblade
So let's talk about C9. I suppose we should start with its full name, which is Continent of the Ninth Seal. It's a 3-D fantasy action RPG for PC, and it's developed by a company called Cloud 9 Studio. Webzen is handling global publishing duties, and the firm also hosted the E3 shindig I attended yesterday in order to get some hands-on time with the game. Action combat is all the rage in MMOs nowadays, and C9 has it down pat. Tab targeting is conspicuously absent. Combat is all about reaction time, situational awareness, dodging, blocking, and chaining together ridiculously powerful combo attacks. Is it an MMO? As ever these days, that depends on whom you talk to. For its part, Webzen calls it an MORPG (leaving off the first "m" for massively), and the game focuses primarily on PvP and small-group PvE.
The Wii U accessory onslaught begins in the Scribblenaut-iest way
With a new console comes a world of new accessories. I encountered my first Wii U accessory in PDP's booth, and it's glorious. To go with the Wii U version of Scribblenauts Unlimited, PDP has concocted a cover for the WiiPad designed to mimic Maxwell's "rooster hat."Now that it exists, every Wii U controller that isn't in a rooster hat is a missed opportunity.
LittleBigPlanet 2 Vita Cross Control adds incredible griefing possibilities
You can do a lot with LittleBitPlanet 2's upcoming Vita Cross Control patch. In a game already filled to bursting with creative opportunities, the additional Vita features are honestly a little staggering. Sure, you could make intricate levels, leveraging every touch and tilt gimmick, every unique cooperative possibility.You could do that, but why bother when the Vita opens up a whole new world of ways to screw with your friends? Check out our demo with Media Molecule's David Dino above.
