We all knew Darksiders II was coming for the Wii U, but THQ have now begun to show off the game in action for the platform, and does it ever look savory. This new developer interview with David Adams of Vigil Games is a bit brief and gives us a better look at the concept of Death, as well as how the Wii U Gamepad will come into play for that particular version of the game.
The Gamepad looks to be used for controlling an inventory, as well as for viewing your map and other trinkets within the game. Yes, it’s looking sharp, and yes, we are dying to get our hands on it. As of now though, you can get a better look on the Wii U version of Darksiders 2 by checking out the interview below, and stay tuned as our hands-on impressions won’t be too far off.
Yes, Aliens Colonial Marines is headed to the Wii U as well and looks very impressive. Most of you knew this, but today Randy Pitchford gave the world a nice sneak peak of what the Wii U will bring to the game itself. The Gamepad for the platform can be used as a motion tracker, and utilized to scan areas for other forms of life. Pitchford claims that this will assist in adding immersion to the experience, and he does seem correct with that statement as holding the Wii U’s Gamepad and seeing the red dots appear is something that is sure to add tension to an already intense atmosphere.
Check out the video below, and let us know what you think of the Wii U’s Gamepad gimmirckry for the game in the comments below.
Today, with much spectacle and press coverage, Danica Patrick announced that she would be a playable character in a Sonic All Stars: Racing Transformed. In addition, she also took the wraps off a new NASCAR, which is being sponsored by SEGA and GoDaddy. This holiday, Danica will be driving around the track in the #7 car, and Sonic will be there right along with her. Check out the gallery and video below.
What do you think of this announcement? Will it really help sell Sonic games? Will you be more likely to buy Sonic All Stars: Racing Transformed? Be sure to leave a comment below.
Want to see a tour of the Nintendo Wii U’s Gamepad? Well, you are in luck as Nintendo have posted one in video form, showing off the functionality for the controller – with details about what every button can do. Most of it is pretty basic for the most part, as the Gamepad’s main scheme is self-explanatory. Some more unique inputs however put this little piece of hardware over the top, such as the Home Button that can take players back to the menu without interruption, as well as the built in microphone and camera for your socialization and video game interactivity.
Check out the full tour below, and keep checking back, as more E3 2012 news for the Wii U is on the way!
E3 is of course one of the best times to show off newly announced titles and give the press a chance to take a look at early builds of games. Last year Bethesda wowed everyone in attendance with their presentation of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Now only one year later Bethesda had another Elder Scrolls treat for those of us in attendance… a first look at The Elder Scrolls Online in action as well as a few details that hadn’t yet been revealed.
When the presentation began it is quite obvious that the environmental graphics were nearly as impressive as Skyrim’s in their detail and textures (one thing worth noting is the fact that a bookshelf full of books can be lit on fire from a spell, whether this involves more environmental interaction of this like is not known at the moment), although the same could not be said about the player characters nor the races players can choose from, as the Argonian and Khajiit appear similar to what they looked like in Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
Moving on from that, the setting of Elder Scrolls Online takes place 1,000 years before the events of Skyrim, and the land of Tamriel is in the middle of a massive war, with three factions vying for power. In the North East the EbonHeart Pact has created a strong foothold, while the North West is held by the Daggerfall Covenant. In the south likes the Aldmeri Dominion, while the kings of Cyrodiil have fallen far, so far in fact they have made a pact with the Daedric Prince Molag Bal. Unfortunately for them, this has not gone how they wanted it to.
As such, undead armies have begun roaming the land in an effort to vanquish Cyrodiil’s foes. In fact, the player character himself/herself has undergone quite a devastating theft by the evil Daedric Prince for he has stolen your soul and doomed you to an eternity of death and revival, which puts an interesting twist on the fact that if a player falls in combat, they will simply respawn. Now the main quest for The Elder Scrolls Online focuses on the retrieval of your soul from Molag Bal and Bethesda has revealed that the main quest can be finished entirely solo if players choose to do so
However even if the player chooses to fight solo, they will still run into plenty of other players in the world and with the use of Bethesda’s real time combat system, players will always be able to help one another. If, for example, a warrior stumbles upon a mage who is battling against enemies, they can step in and combine their powers together, sometimes causing a combined skill effect, and finish the enemies off, rewarding both players with EXP and drops. Now this mechanic is accentuated by Elder Scrolls Online’s class system, as the Bethesda representative stated that classes can always play more than one part in a party thanks to these strategies, regardless of their class tree. In fact, skilled fighters will receive something called Finesse Points. At this time, Bethesda hasn’t stated much about these FP, but when demonstrated on-screen, the player received an extra treasure chest of loot as a bonus, so it currently appears to be a reward system for smart fighters.
Now the combat for Elder Scrolls Online will play out in real-time and players will be able to react to their opponents moves in real time as well. For example players can be trying to cast a spell or unleash a skill, see an enemy about to hit them and then block this blow to keep themselves alive. This is quite useful given the fact that the enemies that players will run across will often help one another out and work together. An example of this was shown by Bethesda, where a necromancer immediately raised the skeleton of an enemy just killed by the player, effectively returning them to the fight despite just dying.
Interestingly enough, rather than go the World of Warcraft approach and present a multitude of toolbars and hotkeys, Bethesda has chosen minimalistic approach with their HUD, offering only a small tool bar of skills, the main compass to navigate the map as well as a display of the player’s Health, Stamina and Magicka. This does provide quite an interesting looking title as it makes the game look as if it were a 3rd person multiplayer version of past Elder Scrolls games. This feeling was made even more prominent when Bethesda showed off a number of memorable areas from past titles, including areas from Skyrim, Oblivion, Marrowind and even Daggerfall. These areas will all be available for exploration in ways never before shown.
Now one thing that looks to set The Elder Scrolls Online apart is the fact that the game doesn’t contain any simple quest hubs like other titles, but instead will feature the compass which will point out areas of interest to the player. These points of interest usually contain a quest of some sort, which often will revolve around The Elder Scrolls’ lore. Now NPCs will still give out quests in various areas, with quest givers having a golden aura around them. These quests that players will receive often contain various side-objectives as well. Now while these side-objectives are completely optional, there are consequences for your actions. Saving an ally in one of these side-missions may present an even longer quest-tree or special rewards, while ignoring issues may cause trouble later.
Now with all of these various quests and combat, what about end-game features? Bethesda revealed a number of interesting pieces of content which will keep end-gamers happy, as The Elder Scrolls Online will feature various instances and raids that players can undertake with others and of course, Player vs. Player. Bethesda looks to be trying to create massive battles as they stated that their goal is to have up to two hundred players fighting on screen at any given time, especially when these fights are part of a guild war.
These battles can occur in an open field or even in the castle of another guild, allowing players to either lay siege to others or defend their castle from invaders. The battle presented to us featured around 50 fighters but was rather impressive in scope as it featured plenty of sword fighting, magic spells and more. Now despite these impressive goals, the Bethesda rep stated that they are aiming for a low-spec necessary title, allowing people with computers up to five years old to play the game. Since the company didn’t state what graphical settings we were presented with at the time of the show, the quality can and probably will degrade on older machines.
As it stands, The Elder Scrolls Online looks like it just may be the next WoW killer, as it offers a unique questing system as well, impressive massive player vs player and a world many of us have grown familiar with over the past two decades. We’ll know much more soon as Bethesda is aiming to release The Elder Scrolls Online in 2013 for the PC & Mac.
During their E3 2012 conference, Nintendo announced that their upcoming Wii U console will feature support for multiple streaming services. They confirmed that the Wii U will implement the following video streaming services; Hulu, Netflix, Amazon on Demand and Youtube.
Nintendo plan to implement these services upon launch of the console. As you may or may not know Nintendo have already provided Netflix streaming to North American Wii owners to great success, so it’s only logical that they would bring it over or their next console.
What do you think of the Wii U featuring multiple streaming services like Hulu, Netflix, Amazon on Demand and Youtube? Let us know in the comments section below.
Having just learned about Karoke Joysound a few weeks ago, I was surprised to be able to demo the game today at E3 2012. Fellow editor Travis Bruno and I sang along to All Star by Smash Mouth, which is one of 37 songs that will be available on the disc when it launches this autumn.
The unique feature of this game is its streaming library. There will be over 1,000 songs online that can be played, if your willing to pay a subscription fee. New songs will also be monthly to the Netflix-style subscription service. For access to the music in a 24 hour time period, the price is 500 Wii Points, while a 3 day ticket costs 1,000 points, and a 30 day ticket is 1,000 Wii points.
You can customize an avatar to do background dancing, or play without one; its up to you. While single player gameplay is available, the multiplayer functionality is the most exciting part of this game, as it should be for a karaoke game. 8 people will be able to play 4 microphones. These microphones can apparently distinguish between two separate people, so that 2 people can use one microphone, simultaneously.
Gameplay is pretty standard for a karaoke game. You’ll sing along, trying to match the onscreen keys and timing, while being scored on accuracy. Of course, you can also customize how fast the song will play, and what key the song should be played in, thus allowing you to customize the gameplay to fit your vocal talents.
Graphically, the game looks about as blurry as any other Wii game. Nevertheless, the game played fairly well and I thought it recognized my singing pretty well, considering how badly I butchered every note.
All in all, Karaoke Joysound appears to be a fairly standard karaoke game. Other than an interesting subscription music service, this game is not too much different than other Nintendo Wii music games.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is coming to mobile devices as well as consoles, just like many previous NFS games. At E3 2012, I got a chance to take the Alpha iPhone version of the game out for a test run. The mobile versions of the game are being developed by a separate EA studio.
First off, this game looks fantastic. One of the first things that was pointed out to me was that the spoiler on the Porsche I was driving was literally animating like a real one would. In addition, the damage models were absolutely incredible, especially considering that this is a mobile game. Admittedly, I was playing the game on a 40″ HDTV through an output cable, but I was nevertheless impressed by how good this game looked.
Gameplay in Most Wanted feels like it is probably very similar to the console versions. The Producer of the game, Michael de Graff, said that his team has been working very closely with Criterion and this was evident as I raced the through the city. I raced against 5 other AI cars, who were quite clever in their tactics to destroy me.
In addition, there were quite a few police following my car, trying to get me to stop. Luckily, I was able to make them wreck in spectacular fashion, very similar to a Burnout game.
The controls are very simple. Steering is very accurate, even-though I was using the gyroscope functions. I had some trouble with over-correcting, but all in all, I was quite impressed with the accuracy of the controls.
Of course, Most Wanted will be able to interface with your friends. Multiplayer and leaderboard options were confirmed to be in the game. However, it is unclear whether you’ll need to use an EA network for accessing friends, or whether you can use Facebook and other social networks in the game. When I asked whether Autolog would be in the game, the response was that “they are still working on it.” However, Hot Pursuit on mobile devices has had Autolog functions for quite some time now, so it is reasonable to conclude that Most Wanted will also have this feature.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted on mobile devices has been in development since last year and the production quality was evident in the demo I played. I really hope you’ll be able use Autolog in the game, and I hope there is someway to interface with the console versions of the game, but if not, this is still a great racing game that is on par with its PS3 and Xbox 360 console cousins, albeit in a much smaller package.
Star Trek’s upcoming video game has been common knowledge for quite some time, but Paramount and Namco Bandai are finally ready to reveal more for the upcoming blockbuster, as new enemies for the game were revealed during E3. The very lizard-like foes known in the Star Trek Universe as “The Gorn” will be a dastardly opponent with the game. Remember the ones with the zippers? The Gorn all sport venom that can poison, cause hallucinations, and even kill. There are also varied classes for the race, from the smaller infantry Gorn Rushers, to the larger Gorn Warriors and the massive Gorn Brutes, which will all pose a serious threat in the main game.
“The Gorn are among the most iconic villians in the Star Trek universe and their role in this game certainly lives up to that persona,” said Brian Miller, Senior Vice President at Paramount Pictures and Lead Game Producer. “Kirk and Spock find themselves in an incredibly challenging amount of mayhem as they confront the Gorn throughout the game.”
More than just lizard-skinned foes, the Gorn are a blood-thirsty race determined to conquer the galaxy. A true military dictatorship, the Gorn are made up of billions of self-sacrificing warriors across thousands of colonies, each focused on the conquest of alien races. By utilizing their chaos-causing infectious venom, the Gorn seed mayhem and destruction as they destroy populations and deplete planets of their resources.
“Great villains give our favorite characters a chance to become heroes in the process of attempting to eliminate a powerful threat, and Star Trek fans have been eagerly anticipating the moment when the antagonists of the game would be revealed,” said Carlson Choi, VP of Marketing at NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. “This is one of those moments and we couldn’t be more excited to give gamers a glimpse at the challenges that lie ahead for Kirk and Spock.”
This title is being torn right out of the 2009 flick’s lore, and will feature Kirk and Spock working together in a massive co-op adventure, across plenty of unexplored planets and enemy battleships. Yes, co-op is a strong word for Star Trek, as it was built around that kind of experience, and it looks like a damn fine game because of those gameplay stylings. Expect more coverage to come, and Star Trek the game to be out in 2013.
We knew Majesco would be showing off NBA Baller Beats for the Kinect at this year’s E3, but we didn’t know how exactly the game would actually work. I myself was surprised when the game touted that players will have to use a basketball in their living room, as the concept alone sounds ludicrous. Well, the game’s reveal told all today, and oddly enough, I’m liking what I am seeing so far.
NBA Baller Beats is all about using a basketball and dribbling and moving it to the beat of each song that is played. Yep, think guitar hero, add in a ball and toss out that plastic guitar, and you have this interesting and truly unique blend that is sure to capture the interest of all fans of the sport.
While the concept is worth a lot of mention, the soundtrack is also quite awesome and jam-packed full of talent that should be fantastic to practice your court skills with.
Here is a bit more information, as well as an early track reveal for NBA Baller Beats:
NBA Baller Beats challenges players using a real basketball to master ball-handling skills by dribbling and performing moves to the beats of an eclectic soundtrack. Train alongside your favorite NBA franchise unlocking songs, difficulty levels, environment accessories, and over 100 posters and Panini’s 2012 NBA HOOPS trading cards that showcase NBA players’ greatest moves. The music is your guide as the Kinect motion sensor captures every movement of both player and ball to create an entirely new basketball gaming experience. Master crossovers, pump fakes, behind-the-back, around-the-world and more as you bounce the ball to the beat of 30 licensed tracks that span across decades and genres including hip-hop, rock and old school classics. Today Majesco Entertainment officially announced 15 of the 30 songs featured in-game.
Confirmed NBA Baller Beats In-Game Tracks (15 of 30):
“Amazing” – Kanye West*
“Another One Bites the Dust” – Queen*
“Bangarang” – Skrillex
“Blue Sky” – Common*
“Bust A Move” – Young MC
“Chillin” – Wale ft. Lady Gaga
“C’Mon Catch ‘Em By Surprise” – Tiesto vs. Diplo ft. Busta Rhymes*
“It’s Tricky” – Run DMC*
“Let It (Edit Remix)” – Machine Drum ft. Melo X
“New Fang” – Them Crooked Vultures*
“Obstacle 1” – Interpol
“Party Rock Anthem” – LMFAO*
“Slam” – Onyx*
“Stylo” – Gorillaz*
“Tightrope” – Janelle Monae*
NBA Baller Beats will also come packaged with a Spalding Ball from the get-go, and feature your standard $59.99 price tag when it launches for the Kinect. There are 30 songs in all, with 20 different maneuvers mixed into the main game. GameStop is also taking pre-orders now as the game hits shelves in September, and anyone who does so will receive a free assorted 3-pack of NBA Fathead 5×7 Tradeables featuring top NBA players, while supplies last.
Looking good, right? Well, I know that some are going to mention the carpet issue and how some homes just are not made for sport of basketball…as vases can be broken and mothers of Brady children can get mad quickly. I don’t imagine that fans of basketball will mind though, as I can easily see thing being a centerpiece at practice sessions on the court, and being heavily used by families that tune in to every game. There is a market for this game is my point, and NBA Baller Beats looks to be one title that is out to pull away from the crowd and take a risk. Yes folks, this type of thinking is what the Kinect is all about. Check out the official trailer below for yourself, and stay tuned as we have even more Majesco E3 reveals on the way.
