e3-2014
Latest
Joystiq Presents: One missed call
In the latest episode, Mike Suszek (@mikesuszek) talks with Weekend Editor Thomas Schulenberg (@T_Schulenberg) about the years leading to him joining Joystiq, including one crucial missed phone call. He also talks about going to E3 for the first time in his career. Listen to the MP3 Listen to other Joystiq Presents episodes.
Latest Rainbow Six: Siege trailer nearly blows the roof off
Ostensibly a showcase for E3 hype, this Rainbow Six: Siege trailer depicts all the neat ways in which police can wreck a suburban home in the pursuit of truth, justice and a few more points on the multiplayer leaderboards. [Image: Ubisoft]
Evolve wins E3 Game Critics Awards, PS4 leading platform
As voted on by 29 publications, here are the winners of the Game Critics Awards: Best of E3. Spoilers: Evolve won quite a few, along with No Man's Sky and Smash Bros...
What you need to know about Guild Wars 2's second season living story
The wait for Guild Wars 2's Season 2 is finally over! Today, players will dig into the next arc of the living story with the new Gates of Maguuma content (or save the content for later by unlocking it in their story journals). What exactly is in store? If you don't mind a few spoilers, we've got some of those answers for you right now. Back at E3 2014, ArenaNet Associate Game Director Steven Waller and Studio Design Director Chris Whiteside gave us a recap of the first season, but they also gave us a preview of the second. And yes, that next step is through a portal into a whole new zone!
Natural selection: Evolve leads E3 Game Critics Awards nominations
Turtle Rock Studios' Evolve notched six nominations in this year's E3 Game Critics Awards, including Best Online Multiplayer and Best Action Game. The four-versus-one shooter is also up for the prestigious Best of Show award, where it's competing with No Man's Sky, Alien: Isolation, Batman: Arkham Knight, Shadow of Mordor and Rainbow Six: Siege. After debuting at E3, Rainbow Six: Siege tied second for most nods from the judges. Both it and Destiny picked up four nominations, while No Man's Sky was one of several games up in three categories, including Best Indie.
Nintendo CEO to miss shareholders meeting following major surgery
Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata underwent surgery last week to remove a bile duct growth, and as a result he will miss the company's upcoming annual shareholders meeting. In a letter published on Nintendo's site, the 54-year-old explained the growth was fortunately detected early and he made it through the procedure successfully. "I was counseled that removal at an early stage would be the desirable medical option," Iwata said. "Therefore I had surgery last week, and I came through it well as predicted." "I have already resumed business by email and other means, but it is anticipated that a little more time is needed for me to return to my regular work schedule."
The Division dev talks districts, mobile, and more
Co-Optimus has posted an interesting video Q&A with Division IP developer Martin Hultberg of Ubisoft. Hultberg talks a bit about the game's backstory as well as how players will interact with the game world. There are certain level restrictions, for example, as well as equipment requirements for entering a given area (gas masks to deal with contagion levels, etc.). Hultberg also mentions that players who buy The Division get a tablet version as well, so if you can't make it home to your console (and eventually, your PC, right Ubi? RIGHT?), you can be a fifth wheel of sorts and "support the four other players" via your tablet. The interview clip has a lot of gameplay footage spliced throughout, so head past the cut and have a look for yourself.
Playing virtual beer pong with Control VR
Virtual reality in video games is all about new technology that places players within an interactive digital environment. By now, most know about Oculus VR, Sony's Project Morpheus or augmented reality specs like Google Glass and CastAR. But what do you do with your hands while using these headsets?
Suda51 and Let It Die's carousel of death
From the sound of it, GungHo Online and Grasshopper Manufacture's PS4 exclusive Let It Die is some sort of giant death recycling program. As we detailed last week, Let It Die stores every player death on its servers, and those dead players repopulate the games of other players as AI enemies. If you were gong to classify it, according to executive Kazuki Morishita, "Let It Die is a survival crazy action game." Also on board is Goichi Suda, best known as "Suda51," who says that coming up with the concept of storing death data was a key point in the development of Let it Die (formerly Lily Bergamo). "We all agreed the idea was good, so we decided to focus on this idea, thinking it would be a great new challenge for us." Suda is also in charge of creating the game world itself, as already evidenced by the figure of Death riding a skateboard in the announcement trailer. And before you ask, yes, Suda's shoes are amazing (as always), and yes, we did get a shot of them.
The Think Tank: The best of E3 2014's MMO offerings
E3 has come and gone, and we, the members of the Massively crew, have taken some time to reflect on the MMO shenanigans we saw and read about and experienced vicariously through the folks we conned into going to LA our dear and intrepid field reporters. Here's what our writers thought about E3's offerings for MMO players.
You can't cover your eyes in Oculus Rift, a study of Alien: Isolation
With Oculus Rift dev kit 2.0, the world of Alien: Isolation appears more real than ever before – you peer around dark corners by tilting your actual head, you can almost feel the cold metal walls of your busted ship, and you cling desperately to the motion tracker, hoping that little green dot never appears. Because when it does, you're dead. Thankfully, dying in Oculus Rift doesn't equate actual death – this isn't Stay Alive, people – but it certainly feels real, if only for a second. This is my excuse for squealing like a piglet while playing Alien: Isolation on Oculus Rift at E3. It might be flimsy, but it's all I have. Alien: Isolation was one of Joystiq's official game selections of E3 2014, and we discussed how the Oculus version went down, in text form, here. But, of course, seeing is believing.
Hello Games wants No Man's Sky to surprise you
We still don't know much about No Man's Sky, but after seeing a live demonstration we can say it was one of the most intriguing projects on display at E3 this year. So far, we know that it allows players to explore a full, unique universe, every bit of which is procedurally generated – planets, plants, animals, spaceships, buildings, everything. It's still difficult to tell what will drive players to explore that universe, but Hello Games founder and managing director Sean Murray says some of the game's key factors are surprise and discovery. In one moment, you might be naming a new species of dinosaur, in another you might be engaged in a space dogfight with a hostile alien race. "I really like that when I play the game, those things naturally happen, naturally emerge," says Murray. "And sometimes you're just not sure why, and you have to start to learn a little bit more about the universe." Video game players have become inundated with information, he says, which makes it hard to be surprised by a game. "I think we've become really good at telling you everything you need to know about a game before you play it, to the point where you pretty much know how it starts, you know where you'll be in the middle, and you know how it'll end. I mean, I played Watch Dogs, and I actually really enjoyed it, but I had watched like 13 different videos about it before I played it, and there was so little surprise left for me," says Murray. "And I think we want to leave that a little bit for the player. This is a game about exploration, not in a kind of ambient way, not in a way that is just laid back and boring, [but] in a sci-fi way, which is kind of adventure and discovery."
Watch Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain's E3 demo
Snake? Yo, Snake? Snake! Oh, there you are. Hey Snake, check it: You've read our E3 preview of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and its animal-ballooning hijinks. Now watch all 30 minutes of the E3 demo for yourself in this recorded Konami stream. [Image: Konami]
Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity looks old, and that's good news
Pitched as a return to the days of games like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment – isometric RPGs developed on BioWare's Infinity Engine – Pillars of Eternity from Obsidian is decidedly old-school. Where other games may tout streamlined gameplay and accessibility, Pillars holds its stats-based and number-heavy head up high as it walks through environments befitting a medieval fantasy world. This isn't a revolution or new beginning for the genre, but a return to form.
Conan 'Clueless Gamer' O'Brien luges through E3
Conan O'Brien may have not been the only clueless gamer at E3, but the TV star's take on gaming's annual LA-palooza is always worth a watch. After talking and playing Entwined, Forza 5, Sunset Overdrive, Project Morpheus and Kevin Spacey In Your Face, things get a bit creepy when 100 Nintendo ladies watch Conan firestorm Hyrule Warriors. There's more Clueless Gamer below the break with Conan playing Super Smash Bros Wii U.
Crystal Dynamics sheds light on Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris
During E3 last week, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix came out of left field by announcing not only a new Tomb Raider, but also a new Lara Croft game. Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris returns to the cooperative, isometric, puzzle-solving action first introduced in Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, upping the ante with improved visuals and 4-player co-op (though thankfully not fixing what isn't broken). "We get to expand our puzzle space as we gain more and more players," says senior designer William Kerslake, noting that Temple of Osiris allows new dynamics for puzzles, depending on how many players are participating. As for when Crystal Dynamics will finally serve up a proper sequel in the Legacy of Kain series, that remains a mystery. Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris is coming "soon" to PS4, Xbox One and PC.
E3 2014: Warhammer 40K devs on development and founders packs
As part of an established IP, Warhammer 40K: Eternal Crusade has had a fanbase from the get-go. And those folks have been watching and proving the development of the MMO fairly closely. How closely will the game resemble the IP? Will it hold to the lore and fit into the known universe, or will it splinter off and do its own thing? I sat down with Warhammer 40K Creative Director David Ghozland, Senior Producer Stephanie Marchand, and Behavior Online studio head Miguel Caron at E3 2014 to talk about how development is progressing, discuss how the MMO fits in to the IP, and find out more about founders packs.
Snooping brought Grim Fandango to PS4 & Vita
One of the most pleasant surprises at E3 2014 was the announcement that LucasArts' beloved adventure game Grim Fandango is coming to PS4 and Vita. How did it happen? PlayStation VP of Publisher Relations Adam Boyes explains it all came about when the game's original project leader, Tim Schafer, caught him snooping around the (intellectual) property. Grim Fandango's resurrection is being helmed by Sony's third-party production team and developer Double Fine, maker of other fine adventure-based products. No timeframe for the remastered game's release has been announced, but we can confirm that it's not soon enough.
No Man's Sky: Name your own dinosaur, get eaten by it
A 10 minute, hands-off demonstration is not enough time to take in No Man's Sky. I know that because 10 minutes is about all I've seen, and I still don't quite know what to think. At the very least, I can confirm everything we saw during Sony's E3 2014 media briefing. Played from a first-person perspective, No Man's Sky can take you from the surface of an alien planet teeming with life into outer space, where you can engage in zero-G dogfights, and then down to the surface of another planet, all without a single loading screen. Take a moment to comprehend the scope of that: Terrestrial exploration, interplanetary travel, space combat – all of it seamless and procedurally generated. It's impressive to watch, and gorgeous to boot, but I still can't nail down what drives players to do it all. Like ten minutes of out-of-context Minecraft, my demonstration was fascinating but a little inscrutable. Please understand, that's not intended as a criticism, it's just that what Hello Games is promising is so big that I'll have to see a lot more of it before I can form any concrete impressions. For now, let's talk about that promise.
Sherlock Holmes and The Case for Trying New Games
Walking the show floor of the LA Convention Center, you see games that take you by surprise. Maybe these games didn't have the budget to promote as vivaciously as another company, or maybe they promised a slow-burn experience – something difficult to demonstrate when press meetings usually last 15 to 30 minutes – or maybe they were simply tucked into a corner, away from the hustle-bustle foot traffic that a crowd of 48,900 people brings. Whatever the reason, these E3 participants get passed on, skimmed over, or ignored in favor of the bigger flashier games with the recognizable names. I realized, on that show floor, if we want new experiences, we have to step outside the comfortable, the mass-marketed. Take a chance once in a while. I will, because Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments convinced me to take one.
