All the games from Sony’s PlayStation event at E3 2014
Sony’s E3 event didn’t end until 11PM ET last night. So, just as we did with the Xbox titles revealed at E3, we’re going to round up all the future games heading to Sony’s various consoles. It’ll basically be a condensed version of our Sony liveblog, with an extra helping of trailers and without the excitable prose of Ben Gilbert, who was up way past his bedtime.
Grim Fandango
That’s right. Tim Schafer’s 16-year-old PC classic is now an active and exclusive Sony title, in the hands of Double Fine Productions. It’ll be coming to the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation Vita at an undisclosed date, and we can particularly imagine the morbid adventure getting a new lease on life (death?) on the handheld’s touchscreen. Alas, no trailer at this point.
Far Cry 4
We already knew Far Cry 4 was coming to all major platforms in November, but E3 has exposed a Sony-exclusive feature. In what sounds like a pretty smart approach to promoting game downloads, we’re told that Far Cry 4‘s multiplayer mode will be open to groups of PSN friends, even if only one of them owns the title — possibly through Sony’s PlayStation Now streaming service.
LittleBigPlanet 3
Sackboy’s creators have learned some new stitches, resulting in some new characters like the quadrupedal “Oddsock.” In turn, these characters will bring new abilities and dynamics into the game — including flying! — that should make your homemade levels (which will still be playable, with enhanced graphics) a whole lot easier to complete. Expect to see LittleBigPlanet 3 on the PlayStation 4 in time for the holiday season.
Destiny Beta
If you’ve been waiting to experience this title, you only need to be patient for five more weeks. PS3, PS4 and Xbox owners can get early access to the beta on July 17th when they pre-order. It’s probably the closest you’re going to get to a playing Halo game on a Sony console. Oh, and bundle shoppers will find the game packaged with a matching “glacier white” PS4, out with the final release on September 9th.
Rainbow 6: Siege
The Division isn’t the only new title inspired by the late Tom Clancy. Rainbow 6: Siege is a strategic multiplayer shooter in which destructible environments seem to play a big role — at least judging from the heavily rehearsed match shown in the video.
Assassin’s Creed: Unity
Arno Dorian’s upcoming adventure sees him add even more blood to the spillage of the French Revolution. As well as a peek at in-game footage, E3 also gave us a release date: October 28th on the PS4 (as well as Xbox One and PC).
The Order: 1886
Almost a century later than the fall of the French monarchy, a group of four knights resurrected the myth of King Arthur on the streets of London. Or did they? Either way, this spooky, pseudo-historical third-person shooter won’t arrive until 2015, and it only got a fleeting appearance during Sony’s E3 event.
Entwined
A colorful twin-stick action game that sort of reminds us of Flower. You can play it for yourself right now on PS4 via the PlayStation Store, while PS3 and PS Vita versions will arrive at a later date.
Let It Die
Gosh, this one looks gruesome. A PS4 exclusive consisting of hatchets, spiky balls on chains, wooden clubs with nails poking out of them and extra points for being nasty. Alas, no straight-up gameplay footage in the E3 trailer.
Dead Island 2
Again, no gameplay footage was on show here, but E3 revealed that the zombie franchise is making its way to the PS4, with a few platform-exclusive features (including 30-day early beta access) and with the help of the same studio that brought us Spec Ops: The Line. Headed for release in spring 2015.
Bloodborne
If you’re going to be playing a dark fantasy game in 2015, it may as well be one made by Hidetaka Miyazaki. The director and his team at From Software brought us Dark Souls, and now they’re working on a grisly action-RPG for the PS4 that was previously code-named Project Beast.
Abzu
A very calm, underwater version of Journey. Made by some of the same people who made Journey. Fancy that! It’s coming to the PS4, but we don’t know when.
Battlefield: Hardline
Ben Gilbert can’t bear the look of it, and the gameplay certainly seems chaotic — almost ridiculously so. If you’re a Battlefield fan, however, you might appreciate this new use of the game’s mechanics. Plus, you can try the beta free right now from inside the PS4 version of Battlefield 4.
No Man’s Sky
A deep, procedurally generated space-faring sim that will come first to the PS4. This was probably Tim Seppala’s top game of the night.
The Last Of Us
We already knew a remastered edition was coming to the PS4, but you’ve got to watch the new trailer to feel the vibe.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
With probably the best soundtrack of the night (“Nuclear,” by Mike Oldfield), the trailer is full of big men with tiny weapons.
Grand Theft Auto V
Another definite contender for your wish list: GTA V is finally headed to next-gen consoles and the PC this fall. Expect weather, damage, wildlife and all-round better graphics to bring this game to life.
Batman: Arkham Knight
The new Batman game looks to heavily feature the Batmobile… and don’t forget Scarecrow. Fortunately, Gotham City doesn’t appear to contain any pedestrians.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
More Nathan. More Sully. More heavily directed gameplay that still somehow manages to create a sense of place and character. The newly named Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End should arrive in 2015.
Xbox at E3 2014: an interview with the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer
Yesterday wasn’t the first time Phil Spencer took an E3 stage for Microsoft to talk Xbox, but it was his first time as the head of Microsoft’s Xbox division. After taking over for Marc Whitten back in March, Spencer’s been on a charm offensive. His focus was clear at yesterday’s show: games, all games. Forget about last year’s coming out for Xbox One as an “entertainment” platform — yesterday’s focus was all games, all the time. The 90-minute show was divided cleanly in half between games coming this year and games arriving in 2015 and beyond. It was, in short, an impressive display of the Xbox One’s gaming prowess over anything else. “I want the content to be the star,” Spencer told us.
So, that aside, we wanted him to give us more on the other stuff that the Xbox One does: media streaming, voice control, Windows 8 and television. And hey, what’s Microsoft doing to compete with Sony’s Project Morpheus VR headset, not to mention the Oculus Rift?
First things first, how is Microsoft responding to the likes of Oculus’ Rift and Sony’s Project Morpheus?
“I look at VR as an interesting technology. I’m watching what’s going on out there; I don’t really think it’s a mainstream technology yet today. The nice thing at Microsoft and Xbox is we’ve remained invested in experimenting with a lot of what’s out there, whether it’s voice, or motion. Right now I’d say we have our skunkworks stuff that we’re working through, but right now we’re watching how the VR space evolves to see if it ends up as a mainstream consumer scenario.”
Skunkworks, eh? It sounds like Microsoft’s R&D department has something going on with VR, though it sounds more exploratory than anything else. And what about Xbox 360 gaming on Xbox One — could an emulator be on the way? Spencer got verbose:
“So, not to geek out on it, Xbox 360 is obviously a Power PC-based architecture. We’ve got an x86 architecture on Xbox One, which makes the translation a little more challenging. The interesting thing — the Xbox 360 has an amazing content catalog, one of the largest catalogs ever created. When I think about that content, I don’t want that content to just waste away. I want it to be content people can play for many years; there are a lot of different ways for us to enable that. It’s something that I’m sitting down with the team and we’re brainstorming on. We don’t really have a plan yet that I can communicate in a way, but I can say I want to make sure that that content is stuff people can play. I think that’s an important part of investing in an online, connected community, is that the content I acquire and I’m playing is something I can carry forward with me. Right now there isn’t a plan, just to be clear to people. But it’s something that we have conversations about.”
Check out the full interview above for all of Spencer’s answers, including much more about Windows 8 apps on Xbox One and the future of Kinect.
Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
Watch Nintendo’s E3 ‘Digital Event’ right here!
Hey! Nintendo’s annual not quite E3 event is kicking off at 9 AM PT (12 PM ET). As usual the company isn’t holding an in-the-flesh press event. So, why don’t you follow along with us and watch a stream of the company’s big gaming announcements (we’ll be watching right along with you). Mario Kart already out of the way, maybe we’ll get word on some of our other favorite Nintendo franchises. (Zelda or Donkey Kong, anybody?) Only one way to find out. Click on through past the break to watch a Twitch stream of the “Digital Event” or just check back with us throughout the day as we bring you all the latest E3 news.
Open-world ‘Zelda’ game heading to Wii U in 2015
Last year, Zelda tastemaker Eiji Aonuma told us that he wanted to give players more freedom. “I want them to be able to explore more.” Back then, he was talking about A Link Between Worlds; today Nintendo is talking about the franchise’s first game designed natively for the Wii U. Taking the screen during Nintendo’s Digital Event at E3, Aonuma showed a deep, lush landscape and pointed to the horizon. “You can even reach those mountains in the distance if you walk far enough.” It’s the first truly open-world Zelda game.
Aonuma says the new Zelda game is all about removing boundaries, recalling how the original Legend of Zelda allowed players to wander the land of Hyrule in any direction, almost without restriction. Exploration is the game’s new focus, he says, and the first puzzle the player will have to solve is figuring out what direction they want to wander. Nintendo seems to be breaking a few sartorial conventions too: In a brief action clip, Aonuma showed a young, long-haired protagonist garbed in a light blue tunic, as opposed to Link’s traditional green garb.
That adventure won’t be available until some time next year, but there’s still a Zelda game on deck for 2014: Hyrule Warriors, Nintendo’s mash-up between The Legend of Zelda franchise and Dynasty Warriors. This game breaks a Zelda convention too, thanks to its partner franchise’s multiplayer standards: Players will be able to team up as Link, Princess Zelda, Midna, Impa and possibly others. That experience can be had on September 26th, 2014.
‘Super Smash Bros.’ for Wii U lets you bring toys (and yourself) into the game
Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U isn’t just leaning on your nostalgia to clinch a sale; it also has a few technological tricks up its sleeve. Nintendo’s latest brawler will let you bring the characters from its NFC-based toys (now known as Amiibos) into the game by tapping them on the Wii U’s gamepad. They can fight alongside you or in your place, and they’ll gain abilities as they level up. Other titles (including Mario Kart 8, Mario Party 10 and Yoshi’s Woolly World) should support Amiibos in the future, as well. If you’d rather introduce your own persona, though, you can. Super Smash Bros. has an option to add your Mii, giving it both a character class as well as a handful of special moves.
You’ll still have to wait until sometime during the holidays to pick up the Wii U version and try out all its spiffy new features. If you’re impatient for some fisticuffs, though, you’ll be glad to hear that Super Smash Bros. 3DS will be available a bit sooner — it’s now set to launch on October 3rd. You won’t be locked out of Amiibo, either, as Nintendo is promising a peripheral (sadly, due in 2015) that puts your figurines into 3DS games.
Nintendo teases ‘Mario Maker’ for creating custom Mario levels on Wii U
We had a feeling Nintendo was going to announce something called “Mario Maker,” a game that allows you to create your own levels in Super Mario Brothers — after all, Nintendo Enthusiast found a poster for the damn thing in the company’s E3 booth. Indeed, Nintendo just teased it in a press event, though it only provided a scant few details. In a series of screenshots, we saw someone creating custom levels, with the help of the Wii U’s included stylus. Though you can design the level using old-school 8-bit graphics, as in the screenshot above, you can also go with the sort of modern look found in Mario’s newer titles. No word on exact release date, except that it will hit North America and Europe sometime in 2015.
There’s a new ‘Doom’ coming and you can see it right here
You like fighting crazy demon-robot hybrids and, right? Boy do we have some news for you: there’s totally a new Doom in the works and it’s going to be on display at developer id’s annual Quakecon show in Texas this year. If you can’t make it to The Lone Star state, though, we’ve embedded a teaser trailer for the game just after the jump.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Engadget Daily: the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Tesla opens Supercharger patents and more!
Today, we dive into day one of the Electronic Entertainment Expo and pore over a load of new games like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Forza Horizon 2, learn about Tesla’s plan to expand the EV market and ponder the applications of an Arduino-equipped hoodie that can send text messages. Read on for Engadget’s news highlights from the last 24 hours.
What you need to know about the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)
Earlier today, we joined thousands of developers, publishers and video game fanatics in Los Angeles, California for one of the biggest industry trade shows in the world: the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Read on for everything you need to know about this gigantic three-day event.
All the games from Microsoft’s E3 event
Xbox’s Graeme Boyd told us to expect plenty of games during day one of E3, and that’s just what we got. Continue reading for a complete rundown of the announced titles, including new additions to the Call of Duty, Forza and Halo franchises.
Tesla will open up its Supercharger patents to boost electric car adoption
We knew Elon Musk was up to something, but now we know exactly what the hints were about. In a bold effort to set an industry standard and boost electric car adoption, Tesla Motors will share designs for its Supercharger system with other EV manufacturers.
This smart hoodie lets you message friends on the sly
What you’re looking at is the combination of a cellular-equipped Arduino board and a regular ole’ hoodie. What does it do? This garment let’s the wearer send messages by simply rolling up a sleeve.
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Filed under: Misc
The adventure game classic Grim Fandango is coming to PS4
Just because LucasArts as an active game studio is no more doesn’t mean that some of its original franchises are going the way of the dodo — far from it. Double Fine’s Tim Schafer has revealed at Sony’s E3 event that the classic 1998 adventure game Grim Fandango will be re-released on the PlayStation 4. Details of the remake aren’t available just yet, but it’s safe to presume that some visual upgrades are coming to Manny’s journey through the Mexican Land of the Dead.
YouTube headed to PlayStation 4 ‘later this year,’ adds one-click sharing
Sony Computer Entertainment’s new head, Shawn Layden, confirmed that YouTube is on its way to the PlayStation 4 “later this year.” Layden tossed out a few stats about the PS4′s social reach with gamers, citing the over 95-percent of PSN connected consoles and heavy use of the DualShock 4′s Share button — it’s been pressed over 220 million times. To enhance the ease with which gamers can share via social, the dedicated YouTube app will allow for easy video uploads with a click of the Share button. Layden also followed up on last year’s promise that PS4 gamers would be able to join a friend’s broadcast session, saying that interactive ability will be added to PS4 soon.
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