Here are some images from Sony’s E3 2011 press event which took place earlier today. During the event, Sony announced that their next-gen handheld unit which had previously been known as NGP (Next Generation Portable) was now officially known as the PlayStation Vita.
This was taken at today’s Ubisoft E3 2011 press event – it shows off the first gameplay footage seen of Far Cry 3.
Ubisoft has announced Far Cry 3 at their E3 2011 press event this afternoon. The game is being developed by Ubisoft’s Montreal Studio (with support from Massive and Ubisoft Shanghai) and will return the series to the island locale as gamers play as Jason Brody – a man marooned on a tropical island. If you recall, Crytek began the Far Cry series on an island setting back in 2004.
“Far Cry 3 brings something new and unexpected, while still building upon the foundations of excellence that are inherent to the Far Cry brand,” said Dan Hay, producer at Ubisoft Montréal.
Far Cry 3 is due out in 2012 and will be released on the Windows PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms.
BioWare, EA, and Microsoft have unveiled the box art for the upcoming third part in the Mass Effect storyline. Mass Effect 3 will feature an Earth under siege by Reapers and Shepard will be the only thing that stands between us and annihilation.
Courtesy of those lovely people at IGN, here is the full nine minute demo of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, taken from the Microsoft E3 press event this morning – enjoy!
SEGA has released some new screenshots from their upcoming actioner, Renegade Ops.
From Electronic Arts E3 2011 press event this morning comes a new video showing off the features of the new Frostbite 2 engine being used on their forthcoming Battlefield 3.
Microsoft and 343 Industries have released the first art assets for their just-announced HALO 4. The game is due out next year and will see the beginning of a new trilogy of HALO video games.
Microsoft’s 2011 E3 press briefing was definitely a more underwhelming hurrah when compared to their 2010 event. Then, the big news was Natal Kinect. After a decent enough list of launch titles, that particular peripheral has been a bit neglected. Trying to keep the Kinect-wave alive this year, Microsoft debuted several new titles to all implement Kinect in some way.
We got to see some new coop gameplay for EPIC’s upcoming Gears of War 3 which featured Cliffy B and Iced-T taking on a gigantic sea monster infected by the Lambent.
Activision showed off some gameplay of their upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which featured Seal Team 6 assaulting an invading Russian submarine in order to commandeer its compliment of surface-to-surface missiles. Additionally, we got a bit more of an idea the kind of scale the attack on New York City is made of. In the distance, the New York City skyline was burning, tons of building damage from volleys of sea-to-land missiles and air strikes from above.
Microsoft also announced the Xbox LIVE Experience, which featured enhanced functionality for YouTube, Bing, and even integration with the UFC – all slated for release to the console this fall. Also on-track with this release is live TV channels coming to the console. This definitely represents a step-forward in Microsoft’s attempt to get the Xbox 360 console w/Kinect as the focal-point electronic box in the American home entertainment cabinet.
“Liara, move up!”
Mass Effect 3 was confirmed to utilize the Kinect system, employing cool voice commands allowing you to say lines of dialogue and even command teammates to utilize abilities and tactics. Overall, Mass Effect 3 looked to have some really smooth gameplay and it was nice to see returning characters like Liara and Garrus.
Dance Central 2 had some interesting gameplay to show off to fans, featuring cooperative dancing.
The, basically, on-rails Fable: The Journey looks interested, although it may feel to linear for fans of the open-world gameplay featured in past Fable titles.
One gem of the show was Crystal Dynamics upcoming Tomb Raider. The footage featured Lara Croft waking up after being ship-wrecked on a danger-filled island. She crawled through caverns and escaped crazy-looking bad guys. The whole gameplay experience seemed much darker than previous entries into the series and I can’t wait to see how this one shapes up.
“Blow this thing and go home!”
One let-down in the press briefing was Star Wars for the Kinect. The movement looks really sluggish and delayed from what the user was gesturing. Also, it did not look at all like 1:1 lightsabre combat and, in the end, that is going to hurt this game a lot. Additionally, it looks to be set all in the new trilogy of movies, before Luke Skywalker and Co.
To end the morning on a high note, Microsoft showed the debut teaser for HALO 4, but like several of Microsoft’s announcements, the surprise was somewhat missing thanks to the news being leaked earlier today.
Overall, Microsoft’s 2011 E3 showing might have been somewhat underwhelming when compared to its previous years’ hype-filled Kinectitudeness. However, they did have a few interesting offerings that will be fun to use and get into. It is just unfortunate that their internal security is so bad that they have all the leaks they do shortly before the event! If they could get those under control, we may be more surprised next time.
From this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo comes the official intro cinematic from BioWare’s upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic.
