E3 Nintendo Round Up

Well holy crap. that was... Nintendo... Reggie VS Iwata! Robot Chicken! At least watch the opening of the Direct!



Zelda!

Click To Enlarge

We got a first look at Zelda Wii U, which as you can see is beautiful and needs to be seen in motion. Anomua Talked about how Nintendo have never really been able to capture the open world of the original Zelda for the SNES. All the following games was single area's lined up to give the illusion of an open world.
This still unnamed Zelda is full on, See that Go there open world will hit next year

Click. Make. Big

Hyrule Warriors got some more character details. Princess Zelda and Minda will be playable and they are promising more in the full game due September 19th/24th

Smash Bro', N|FC, Character
As rumoured Nintendo's NFC system will work with Smash Wii U. you'll be able to customise characters moves and store them on the character. Not only will they have your moves but they'll also learn how to fight and can be used in "friendly" fights.
Mii's join smash bros too. instead of being an generic character with you Mii's head there are 3 unique mii classes with a move pool that you can pull from. There is a brawler, a sword fighter and arm cannon class.
Speaking of new characters Palena from Kid Icarus was announced via an anime brawl between link and pit. She had an awful lot of dialogue for a smash bro's revel and the sequence ends with a tease of Dark Pit.

The GameCube Controller Adapter for Wii U, which supports up to four GCN controllers (including WaveBird), will be available for $19.99 USD Nintendo will also sell Smash Bros. branded GameCube controllers for $29.99 USD each. Lastly, a special Smash Bros. for Wii U bundle, which includes a copy of the game, one adapter, and a GCN controller, will be sold for $99.99 USD. Knowing the way we get done over in regional pricing it, think we can knock 10 of those prices.

NFC
Speaking of NFC the platform will be called Amiibo and the (same) figures will work on smash bros, Mario Kart 8, Mario Party 10  and other games. It wasn't clear but it was implied that these figures will also work with the Wii u versions of Skylanders and Disney infinity. Amiibo will also work with 3Ds once they launch a wireless Add on

Bayonetta 
more footage of Bayonetta 2 was shown the news though was their will be Nintendo costumes Link, Samus and (a hilariously inappropriate) Peach for Bayonetta to wear and there will be a special Edition that comes with Bayonetta 1

Mario
only 3 Mario games was shown. Mario 3D world Spin off Capatin Toad: Treasure Tracker, this is a full on game based on the mini game found in SM3DW. The other title was Mario Maker that we covered a few days ago. Yes you'll be able to make your own Mario levels with switchable style Classic Super Mario Bro's or New Mario Bro's U. Toad is due this year whilst Maker will appear next year

The third title is Mario Party 10 which you'll remember is Amiibo equipped. This time Bowser is the star and the game pad plays a Dungeon Master style role.

Yoshi!
Yarn Yoshi appeared now called Yoshi's Woolly World and is well an wool based Yoshi's Island. The game looks very nice and features two player co-op (yes you can "eat" each other)

Kirby
A new Kirby game was shown for Wii U, not Much was explained but it looked like a smaller downloadable title

X!
X got not only an story trailer (WARNING JAPANESE ACTION) but also a name Xenoblade Chronicles X

New IP
that noise is a thousand gamers screaming out in pain as their biggest Nintendo target disappears. Splatoon is a competitive 4V4  third person shooter that plays like a mix of Mario Sunshine and Jet Set Radio. Instead of racking up kills players are tasked with Inking up as much of the level as possible. Not only are players able to use a range of weapons to spread their ink and dispatch foes but players can also turn into a squid and quickly swim though their own team ink.

Third Party Exclusive
Continuing Nintendo's theme of saving games from development hell here comes Devil's Third, the next game from Ninja Gaiden/Dead or Alive director Tomonobu Itagaki, is coming exclusively to Wii U.
Itagaki's action game marries melee combat, and cover- and first-person shooting, Developer Valhalla Games has been working on Devil's Third for many years. After the dissolution of THQ, its fate remained uncertain

Star Fox!
Star Fox is coming To Wii U along side "Project guard" and "Project Giant Robot" all devleloped by Miyamoto himself.

The Wii U GamePad serves as a first-person cockpit view inside the Arwing in Star Fox, which includes a new helicopter vehicle, and ability to switch to the Landmaster tank instantly.

Project Giant Robot sees players building robots. Like Star Fox, the GamePad becomes your cockpit view. Custom robots then battle, as you use both button and gesture controls, which "adds leverage and momentum" -- in an effort to knock each other over.

Using 12 different cameras to observe and attack, Project Guard sees players fighting against a robot invasion.

e3 2014 - Assassin's Creed COOP!

After teasing co-op in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and it's experiments with Multiplayer based Co-op in AC3 and 4 looks like Ubisoft want's to deliver.

As you can see in the gameplay trailer below, 4 player Co-op is coming to Assassins Creed Unity, along with special unlockable skills and multi pathed missions. It seems like Farcry not all the game is Co-op but the open world and certain missions will be. All in all it is looking good. Also check out that wooden floor, you can see the grain



Abe's Take
It's nice to see Co-op finally arrive in AC. it has been demanded for some time. I imagine Co-op will play heavily in the game as all four character appear on the box art and the game is called "Unity" after all

E3: Farcry 4 Trailers!

Well Farcry 3 you was great, you restored my faith in FPS games not being about grizzled, barrel chested one man armies spurting on about 'merica. Oh look Farcry 4!



First up with a look at the Villain Pagan Min played by Troy Baker (Booker from Bioshock, Joker from Arkham Origins). He's crazy but in a different way to Vas. The Above video is basically the first 5 minutes of the game.

Next up an gameplay walk though... WITH CO-OP! AND ELEPHANTS!



Co-op isn't a seperate mode, its the open world, story missions remain single player. The wing suit returns and a grapple hook is added to make getting around easier. Vehicles are more handy, Dshoot whilst driving and Vehicle takedowns

Abe's Take
Farcy 4 is looking fantastic!

E3 2014: GTA V comes to next gen

Well it was Rumoured then denied, it was leaked and then denied and now here it is!


But there it is GTA V on New Gen and PC looking rather nice too. The new versions will "take full advantage of the new system's feature and power"... which with X1 seems to be either or not both.

GTA Online characters will transfer across regardless of what system you played before thanks to those (damned) Rockstar cloud saves.

As you can see it looks nice, real nice. no details about what extra we can expect was announced or if GTA Online will get some of single players stripped features back (animals, open world activities).

Abe's Take
Finally, i dont know why rockstar wanted this to be a secret so much, They repeated stated that GTA online wont just "end" and their goal is to have a GTA world. For any of that to be true it had to come to next gen.

E3 2014: Bioware - Mass Effect 4

Most wasn't expecting any news on Mass Effect at E3, Would be foolish of EA and Bioware to show off the bigger of their two RPG series just before the smaller's release. But! we got something!

Yep we got a "conceptual prototype" look at Mass Effect 4 featuring an all new character. His race is unknown right now but considering his shape and N7 Armour think it's safe to say he's human.

apprently the thing fans wanted most of ME4 was to move on with a new story, ME4's story will head to a brand new part of the galaxy, and that it will allow new heroes to explore and discover an entirely new story that is different from Shepard’s now concluded adventure. so here's hoping no geth and or reapers.

There should hopefully be a Bioware video soon, where they will also talk about their new IP.... ooooh

E3 2014: Microsoft round up

well here is all that went down at Microsoft's press show, Warning most content was videos and quite detail light

Happy Wars comes to Xbox One
Happy Wars was the 360's first Free To Play game and it appears to be getting an "new version" for X1 it's unknown if this is an enhanced port or sequel.

Sunset Overdrive gets a new trailer
the SO guys enjoy taking a swing at your standard cover shooter.
>

Achievement App Improvements
The achievement app will now be snapable (no more returning to home), sortable (those get 9 million kill achievements can sits up back till their ready) and now you can get help with any troublesome achievements via an in built hints and tips system.

Assassins Creed gets Co-op
Not too much details was given but the video implied story elements will be involved unlike the "simulation" co-op mode Wolf Pack from the last 2 titles. [I think it'll be playable Brotherhood missions - Abe]

Tomb Raider 2!
An great new trailer appeared for Tomb Raider that really set the tone for the new game, with the trailer being narrated by Lara's Psychotherapist. [I am unhappy with the name "Rise of The Tomb Raider" - Abe]

"Cult" classic Original Xbox game gets reboot
NOPE its not ANYTHING you was thinking of. Its Phantom Dust a "classic" game that apparently Ninja'd past me as I was playing Halo and PSO

Speaking of Halo...
Halo Master Chief Collection was announced (SHOCK!). The pack will feature 1080p 60FPS, dedicated servers across all four games all housed in the one mega game. Halo 1 and " are full remasters where as 3 and 4 are ports. Every multiplayer map for every halo game is present and playable in their original engines. The Mega-Game term i mentioned (Which I game up with - Abe) means all four games are simply parts of the larger game, as such you'll be able to set up playlist of your favourite halo levels across all four games.

The collection will also come with the Halo Nightfall digital series and Halo 5 beta.

Halo 5 got a light trailer with what appears to be the arbiter teaching the new character from the box art.


PlayDead (limbo) new game
the people who brought us Limbo are bringing us another moody puzzle platformer called "Inside"

Crackdown 3!
crackdown 3 was finally announced and looked... well like Crackdown. Looks like the agents are gunning after an new city (finally). If the trailer is anything to go buy you'll be able to kill gang leaders by launching a rooftop into a building by sniping a mine, on a truck, that was launched of a ramp, that was building you knocked down.

Platinum's Exclusive game
Again not much to go on but in the trailer, the protagonist dons a pair of earphones, vaults into the heavens and executes a monster with a single swordblow. It looks like you'll have a partner dragon too.
It's called ScaleBound so i suspect your character is shrunk.

Forza!
Forza horrizon 2 looks very pretty and Forza 5 get the track Nurburgring NOW!
Evolve!
Evolve developers seem to thankful for left 4 Deads shot on 360 and have rewarded Ms with early beta access and exclusive DLC. They also showed off their second beast. this one is a flying electric monster (NOT Zapdos or King Gidora)

Dragon Age gets trailer!
Which we have!


Also is that Morrigon on the left?

Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha Announced

Yeas the title of this is Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha. man Capcom know how to take the piss out of it's self. This DLC is a 4 player co-op celebration of Capcom 30th +1 anniversary. You'll be able to play as all sorts of dead rising regulars and others from cacpom's history. we saw Ryu, Dinosaurs, an Akuma mask and the title Super Ultra Dead Rising 3 Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha.... also SUDR3ARHEEXPA..... is available now!


Fable Legends gets gameplay trailer


Yep we have this one too. We get to see some combat, some evil dooings and hear please regional accents

Conkers BACK...
...In project spark... which is getting CO-OP creation, CO-OP story and space themes

RIGHT I think that's about it for now, We'll get back to you as we find more! Overall was a rather by the book show, wasn't many surprises thanks to the vast amount of leaks before E3. I was glade to see alot of ONLY FOR XBOX ONE, Maybe this New generation can finally get started

RUMOUR: Mario Maker at E3

Well it's that time of year again, as E3 approaches workers are currently busy building the event's booths ready for the media and public next week, but also taking pictures on the camera phones. Naughty.

Nintendo is probably the most secretive of the gaming community and usually has very few leaks and when they do it tends to be this time of year as third parties (set builders) get involved in E3.

Today's leak comes from what appears to be a low-res photo of Nintendo's booth at E3, Showing something called "Mario Maker" this is all we know but judging from the picture it looks like a Wii U game (the stylus) and seems to be a level editor (or an "art" style program but we're hoping for the former). I doubt we'll get any confirmation of this title before E3. 

Abe's Take

Custom stages have been something players have been asking for a while now. I'm not 100% sure on it myself as the quality of Nintendo work is so high. 

I did have an interesting idea. Nintendo will be talking about their NFC figure platform at E3 and apparently the figures will work across multiple games and systems. What if Mario maker is an App where you can make levels for Mario 3D world, New U and Mario Kart 8 and save your content on the figure? seems wildly impracticable considering the digital age we live in but this in Nintendo and they dont tend to let worlds like "practicality" get in the way of their ideas.

SteamWorldDig Comes To Wii U

A while back I did a preview of a sale title Steamworld Dig. I never got round to the review which is weird because I LOVED IT. It was recently announced it was coming to steam (as many eShop must). But it seems it has another destination in mind.



SteamWorld Dig HD is coming to Wii U in 2014, when pressed for more details IMAGE&FORM answered with "soonish" so anyday now? i would expect after E3. The developers are very happy about bringing their 3DS hit to Wii U as they are "huge Nintendo fans". It's unknown if the game will receive any extra content or features outside of HD graphics.

All I can say right now is if you have a Wii U pick this up when you can

look out steam, Good Old Games launching Client

For years Steam dominated the digital PC market but in recent years rivals have appeared, Gamestop Digital, EA's Origin, GAMEware and Ubisoft's Uplay. All taking leafs out of Valves play book but a new rival dose thing's their own way.

Introducing Good Old Game's GALAXY client. A completely optional, Offline compatible, Non DRM client. the software will act as a launcher and updater, so games will work interdependently so no worries about cross play between Galaxy and stand alone users. The first Title on Galaxy will be Witcher: Adventure an pseudo table top RPG.

Now we're big fans of GOG.com here, They not only have a cool selection of older games that are good (making the old games compatible with new OS and hardware) but they carry new games too. They don't believe in DRM nor regional pricing instead opting to swallow the difference themselves. GOG recently spoke out against steam's massive sales as they believe it effects the value of games and it's true on most game announcement's you'll see commenter's saying they'll wait until the Steam sales to buy the game

Xbox One Controller PC Online

The 360 pad has become the go to controller for PC players for some years now, many titles will even change it's tutorial key prompts to the Xbox buttons if the pad is connect to the PC. Unless the Steam Pad (delayed again) is as good as PC fans are claiming (hand on impression claim it's not) then people will be looking at the Xbox One controller.

Microsoft promised it was coming, rumours denied it was coming but we finally have official drivers to use the rather fantastic X1 pad on PC's and Windows 8 devices. Games should recognises the controller as a 360 one and act accordingly.  

X86 Driver here and X64 Driver here

Mario Kart Sells Big, Wii U Updates to Celebrate

So it looks like after all the "complaints" about Mario kart 8 being 720p, "just another" Mario Kart and all the other bizarre bad press such as "rasist" was just nonsense.

Beware Luigi and his Soul piercing death stare

Mario Kart 8 has sold 1.3 million in 3 days. Not to shabby for a "sub HD party game on a dead console". The Wii U gained a shot in the arm too. UK sales have jumped 666% (witchcraft!) And 82% of those was the Mario Kart bundle. Nintendo has also offered a free game with purchases of Mario Kart 8, which os prpvong very popular. IF this sales momentum continues, if Nintendo can deliver at E3 and keep titles coming this could be the start of Nintendo's turn around for their home system.

Eager to please it's new system owners Nintendo has released an update for the Wii U, its mostly fixes and improvements but the major feature is Quick Start, now players can quickly log on and load recently played and installed games.