Amongst all the glitz and glamor of E3, girls dressed up as the female fighters from Tekken, Lamborghinis detailed with Tekken fighters and more which you may see later there stood plenty of stations for one to try their hand at Tekken Tag Tournament 2 itself. Now we were given a brief introduction to the title as well as a number of new features which make Tekken Tag Tournament 2 a standout fighter, such as the pair play feature and the brand new Fight Lab mode.
Now it isn’t new to see a versus mode in a fighting game. However it is completely brand new to see up to four players playing at the same time as they trade blows with one another. The Pair Play feature in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 allows for just that. Two players will each take a side, with one player on each side fighting at any given time and the other player taking up the fight when they are tagged in. What makes this mode even more exciting is the fact that it can also be taken online and allow for players from four different places in the world to fight against and with one another. Now Namco didn’t have an online feature set up of course, but the four player Pair Play set up was quite enjoyable to play through, though it is disheartening to see your partner get subsequently destroyed without allowing you to be tagged in.
Now another new feature which the Namco Bandai representative was quite proud of was the brand new Fight Lab mode. This Fight Lab Mode serves as not only a comprehensive tutorial but also a way to create a robotic fighter capable of performing nearly every special attack in the roster’s arsenal or allowing the player to create a fighting style of their very own with pre-existing moves. The Fight Lab takes us on a walkthrough of nearly every aspect of Tekken’s battle mechanics, including how to successfully perform juggle attacks by breaking down each combo and presenting it simply.
It was quite clear from this presentation that, while Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is of course a difficult game to master, Namco Bandai is eager to open up the series to newcomers to the series and potentially pull in more fans. The Fight Lab may be a bit of a turnoff however due to the fact that players look like they will only be forced to play as a robot at the moment. Still, this is a great way to invite more to join in on the fun and the more people willing to take the fight online, especially with the new Pair Play mode, the better.
As for the fighting mechanics themselves, they felt as smooth as ever as I took Paul Phoenix and Asuka against the Namco Bandai representative. As before combo throws can be performed to deal extra damage and stringing together juggling by tagging in and out was as simple as returning fans will remember. Of course these fans will be able to try out the game for themselves when it is released in North America on September 11th.
During E3 Expo 2012, Gearbox Software revealed some new screenshots for their upcoming installment in the popular Borderlands franchise, Borderlands 2.
The new screenshots show off some of the games action, combat, environments and of course the new set of playable characters available in the new game. You can check out the new screenshots below in all their Borderlandish glory. Unfortunately this is all Gearbox have given fans of the series at E3 2012, which is a bit of a shame, but still better than nothing at all.
Check out the new screenshots of Borderlands 2 below and let us know what you think of them in the comments section. Are you ready to enter the Borderlands again? I am.
In the 3.5 years since 343 was founded, the studio has ballooned to 230 people. During this growth period, they have been able to work on one of the most famous video games ever. Microsoft has given them the lead on Halo, one of the most celebrated shooters ever. With great privilege though, comes great responsibility. To that end, 343 has retooled nearly every part of the engine that Halo is built with by rewriting or radically overhauling almost everything involved in production. Halo 4 is the start of the next 10 years of Halo; its a new saga in the franchise.
When 343 was first starting out on development of Halo 4, they wanted to be bold and ambitious with the series, but also keep the classic gameplay that has won the game so many fans. With Halo 4, they believe they have struck that balance. At E3 2012, I was able to sit in during a behind closed doors demo of the game and I also think they have been able to innovate and energize the game, while still retaining everything that has made Halo great. This is a game that Bungie would be proud of.
One key element moving forward for 343 is to make sure that anything released involving Halo 4, whether it be books, toys, movies, etc. ties into the current Halo game on the market. For example, the new Forerunner book by Greg Bear fits into the Halo 4 storyline. Fans have expressed discontentment with the fragmentation of so much of the universe, when one storyline from a book might not intersect at all with a Halo game. 343’s goal is to change that and ensure that every piece of content extend the storyline of the game and add some meaning to the universe.
This demo focused on Spartan Ops, a groundbreaking new idea that extends the campaign through weekly updates of DLC. Spartan Ops is meant to be similar to a TV show. Each update, or “episode” comes packed with 5 missions that can be played with up to 4 people. Best of all, there will be matchmaking, so if you don’t have any friends who play Halo, you’ll still be able to enjoy co-op in Spartan Ops. In addition, each episode has a cinematic cutscene that is meant to be meaningful addition to the Halo universe. And while Spartan Ops is the actual story portion, War Games (Deathmatch multiplayer, etc.) is meant to be a simulator, or a training excercise experience that the Spartans use in between their operations, thus proving that 343 is truly making Halo into a believable, meaningful and story driven universe.
Demonstrating 343’s commitment to Halo, Spartan Ops will not be using recycled assets from the main game. Each episode will feature entirely original graphics and visuals. According to Executive Producer Kiki Wolfkill, Halo 4 will “Double down on what makes Halo unique and different.”
One of the most prominent and drastic changes to Halo 4 is the addition of a loadout system. You’ll be able to customize your weapons and armor abilities to your liking, name your load-out and carry it into battle. The Tactical Package menu gives you special abilities — like being able to carry a DMR and Battle Rifle at the same — without having to find each of them in the environment during battle. Of course, there are also numerous Tactical Package options that will enable many more options.
Plus, you can equip your favorite Armor Abilities and Support upgrades. Much like in Halo Reach, once you create your own Spartan, it will follow you everywhere — across Spartan Ops, War Games and Campaign. And, there will be a progression system that rewards you with additional enhancements, weapons, Tactical Package options and more. Although the majority of Spartan Ops missions will be infantry based, there will also be flying, driving, and all the regular missions that are typical of a Halo game, although it was promised that there would be a few surprises in store as far as mission variety goes.
Spartan Op’s story begins 6 months after the Halo 4 story ends. On the planet Requiem, the Covenant have found some Forerunner artifacts but it is up to you to nab them first. However, this planet is full of Forerunner technology and messing around with it often triggers traps. For example, when trying to deactivate a shield, the defense system activated and new enemies — the Crawlers, the Watchers, and the Knights — attempted to kill the Spartans.
Crawlers are simple enemies that can be dispatched with one shot most of the time, but they attack in numbers and move very fast.
The Knights can be compared to Covenant Elites, except they also are able to slash with their claws, and they appear to be even more evil.
Finally, the Watchers are diabolical flying enemies that can spawn Crawlers, heal downed Knights and provide shielding to their troops. Of course, these enemies are equipped with the clever AI routines of Halos past, making each encounter a lot more exciting than the simple scripted enemy routes of many games.
What would a Halo be without new guns? The Scattershot was showcased during the demo, and it looks like it will be a fan favorite. Although its shot pattern is similar to a shotgun, the Scattershot can also bank bullets off geometry, thus offering you a plethora of tactical options.
Spartan Ops will essentially be an entirely new campaign released through a period of months, much like a TV season. Hence, Halo 4 is basically two games in one, and three if you count multiplayer options.You will need to be connected to Xbox Live to play through Spartan Ops, and although the first season is free with paid copies of the game, it is unclear whether used copies of the game also get access to Spartan Ops without a fee. Also, once the first season of Spartan Ops is complete, will it cost to access the second season (if there even is a second season)? These questions will hopefully be answered soon.
Halo 4 releases on November 6, 2012. Are you excited or not excited about it? Have an opinion about the game? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.
Disney have revealed a trailer for their latest CG-animated offering Wreck-It-Ralph and it is certainly something that would appeal to gamers. The film appears to be an affection-filled tribute to the history of gaming and even features some of gaming’s most memorable characters like Bowser, Dr. Eggman, Zangief and even the Pacman Ghost.
You can check out the trailer for Disney’s new film Wreck-It-Ralph below. The film features the talents of John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch and Sarah Silverman. It tells the story of Ralph, a video game villain tired of being a bad guy sets out on a quest to find a game where he belongs. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section.
At E3 this year during a developers roundtable Nintendo announced most of their Wii-U’s system specifications. These specs are mostly things like control layouts and the like, but also include a very undetailed technical readout on processing information.
Here are the parts that stick out –
IBM Power Architecture CPU
AMD Radeon HD series GPU
USB 2.0 ports (4x)
HDMI 1.4
Proprietary Optical Discs (Multi-layered, 25gb per layer)
Standard Definition-out ports
As well as these the Wii U will also be backwards compatible with the Wii controllers, Balance Boards, and etc. And it will also be featuring it’s own touchscreen controller and Pro controllers that should all work quite well. Be sure to check the official specs page for more info.
Following their E3 2012 press conference Nintendo held a developers roundtable in which they gave developers a chance to discuss their upcoming titles. They have now begun streaming the developers discussion on their official youtube.
The developers discussion video features a particularly interesting section with Katsuya Eguchi, the producer of Nintendo Land, where he reveals the F-Zero and Legend of Zelda themed mini-games in Nintendo Land and shows footage of both as well as explains how they work. Overall it’s an interesting watch for anyone interested in the Wii U platform.
You can check out Nintendo’s Wii U Developers Discussion video below. Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments section.
The very first trailer for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS role playing game, Devil Summoner Soul Hackers, has just been released by Atlus via the Famitsu magazine website. The game is a remake of a classic Shin Megami Tensei title with improved graphics, new animated cut scenes, new voice acting crew, and of course 3D effects.
This trailer shows off the high quality animated cut scenes that will be in the game, as well the the voice acting crew behind the main characters. You can also catch a glimpse of some in-game action. Also, Atlus confirmed that this 3DS port of Devil Summoner Soul Hackers will also feature the very first trailer for the recently announced Shin Megami Tensei IV.
The Dragon Quest series is taking an interesting spin with the upcoming installment, Dragon Quest X, which is set to be a full fledged online role playing game (MMORPG) for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo’s upcoming console and one of the most talked about topics in this year’s E3 coverage, the Wii U. Dragon Quest X only has a Japanese release at this stage with no current plans to release the title outside of Japan.
Square-Enix has officially unveiled the Japanese box art for Dragon Quest X, it’s the same style artwork that you’ve come to expect from the series’ artist and designer, Akira Toriyama. The artwork shows off the various classes and races that players will be able to use in the game.
Nintendo know how to put on a show, and love or hate the reveals, they still put on a solid event this year, with all the famous characters that we all know and love. Our very own Phillip Federico, Travis Bruno, and Jed Bradshaw were in attendance, and were snapping shots of the show in a frenzy. What you see below is the results, which ties together into one Capsulicious E3 recap of the big Wii U event.
Join us as we take you back through the highlights.
Being a Nintendo event, you can imagine how many journalists had a 3DS with them. MasterAbbott himself finished Puzzle Swap completely due to all of his new visitors.
After putting away the 3DS and getting to business, the guys watched as Miyamoto took the stage and revealed Pikmin 3. It may be single player, but having four characters at once is still a nice feature for a game that we have waited to see for years. Yes, this is the way you start a show.
After years of launching consoles without a Mario, Reggie announced that the Wii U would pounce out with New Super Mario Bros. U. The game itself features baby Yoshi that can spit bubbles and balloon up into the air, and a brand new flying squirrel ability for Mario to use.
After Mario, it was time to announce some third party titles that would hit the Wii U at launch. The biggest shock? Mass Effect 3. EA’s big blockbuster will feature the “true ending” of the game when it hits the Wii U, but nothing has been confirmed yet as of what players will have to do to get their choices from Mass Effect 1 & 2 into this version. Hopefully, we will see some downloadable ports of some kind.
Wii U Fit looks to please the same audience that the Wii attracted to Nintendo. Reggie didn’t get on the fitness board this time, but the game definitely looks much improved based on the short demo that was on display.
Luigi! Yep, everyone was waiting to see more from Luigi’s Mansion 2, but now the game has a new name and still looks delicious. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon will release this holiday for the 3DS, and while the wait is long, we are still thrilled to simply see more.
Just Dance sold like crazy on the Wii, so it’s no surprise that Just Dance 4 would indeed be coming to the Wii U. Dancers took the stage to show off the new game, and everything looks solid for the franchise that keeps churning out gold for Ubisoft.
Finally, Nintendo unveiled their “Wii Sports” for the Wii U, which is titled Nintendo Land. In this game, players can enjoy 13 different mini-games based on actual Nintendo franchises. The whole point of the game is to act as one centerpiece for users to get together and play on the Wii U, with the new Miiverse online system in tact. It was a bit of an anticlimactic way to end a show, but still left gamers talking about what may come out of the unrevealed mini-games on the disc.
There you have it! Sure, there were a few announcements that still took place, but as you might of guessed it, you can find all that and more during our continuing E3 coverage. To see even more photos, check out Capsule Computers’ Facebook page, where you can also keep track of all your major gaming and more news on the go by giving us a “like”.
Much like last year, us here at Capsule Computers have been doing commentary casts on the various conferences shown at E3. The conference that we have made available is the Commentary for the Sony Conference that was shown yesterday.
In this cast, you will be able to hear our impressions of each item being shown, as well as some entertaining back and forth about this and that. The layout is very similar to that of a Podcast, only it’s now with video and we assure you that it will be completely worth your time to watch, if only for a laugh.
Cast:Luke Halliday, Benjamin Webb, Dustin Spencer, Josh Spudic, Michael Irving.
