Review: Sony's E3 2012 PlayStation 3 Conference

Games industry press conferences aren’t about facts and announcements. They are about emotions and feelings.

Excitement is the absolute minimum emotional level of engagement that E3‘s millions of marketing dollars are required to achieve, thus the flashing lights and blaring drums and whooping celebs.

But the organizers must strive for a higher plane, a place where we the viewers thrum with booming heart-beat and moistening eye.

Big emotion, edge-of-your-seat stuff came from two games, one at the beginning of the presentation and one at the end.

Unfortunately, in between we suffered eons of boredom as Sony trotted through its corporate agenda of keeping Move on the map, and half-heartedly saving Vita's miserable hide.

First, the good stuff.

Beyond: Two Souls a PS3-exclusive from Quantic Dream, offered up taut drama and that rare thing, a central video game character, Jodie Holmes, who knows how to shut the hell up and still be interesting. There was more emotional electricity offered here, in an exchange between cop and quiet girl,  than a horde of hysterical blood-lust buffoons on the rampage, chattering their inanities.

David Cage's work isn't to everyone's taste and accusations that his games lack action will always stick. But for anyone tired of bows and arrows and sliced throats, here was an alternative, a story rooted in human experience. There aren’t many developers who will begin their schtick with, “Death is the biggest mystery of mankind.” And by ‘death’ Cage was referring to the extinction of self, as opposed to a hammer-blow to an NPC’s cranium.

Even so, few games are willing to entirely forgo action. Holmes’ major line came at the end of her appearance, “Tell them to leave me the f*** alone because next time I’ll kill everyone.”

Shown at the very end of Sony’s 1.5 hour presentation, The Last of Us is a fascinating world, our own but broken, post-apocalypse done with colors and authenticity. It's also, it turns out, a game that involves extreme violence. In this demo, main character Joel sneaks around before basically killing everyone who gets in his way. This isn't to disparage what, for many, is top of their most-wanted list. It's a gorgeous game with an interesting relationship at its core, between Joel and a girl called Ellie.



Source : http://www.ign.com

Road to E3: Infinity Blade Dungeons

In just over a week, E3 2012 will be upon us. When June 4 arrives, and the press conferences begin, you can expect IGN to be there in full force, kicking ass and taking names. But what are the games you need to pay attention to? What do we expect to blow our minds at the biggest gaming event of the year? Each day we're going to dissect one of these potential blockbusters, discussing what we know and what we expect we'll see at E3.

INFINITY BLADE: DUNGEONS

• Developer | Epic Games


• Publisher | Epic Games


• Release Date | TBA 2012


• Genre | Action RPG

Infinity Blade: Dungeons takes the franchise’s trademark fast-paced touch-controlled battles and presents them in a brand-new way. Instead of engaging in fervid first-person combat, the action plays out from an overhead perspective ala Diablo III or other dungeon crawlers. Players will explore the hand-crafted dungeons, laying waste to giant spiders, armored bears and other enemies, all while collecting gobs of loot.

A small team of Gears of War veterans are responsible for Dungeons instead of Infinity Blade's original creator Chair. The game adheres closely to some dungeon crawler tropes, but clearly isn’t afraid of slaying some of the genre’s sacred cows. Most notably, new weapons will never be found. Instead they must be crafted via a skill-based forging minigame. Players also don’t have a skill bar at their disposal. Instead all skills are activated via smart touch-screen gestures like making a quick circle around your character, or holding your finger over an enemy.

Infinity Blade lore-heads should be sure to read our hands-on impressions for details on Dungeons' story implications.

Epic is cagey about just how far along Infinity Blade: Dungeons is, stating only that the game would be out “sometime in 2012.” If the title is due out sooner, E3 would be a perfect time to allow the industry to go hands-on with a lengthier, near-final demo. But if the game isn't due out until Q3 or Q4, Epic could just have the previous preview demo on-hand, giving gamers a short taste of the game’s gestural combat and weapon crafting.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/29/road-to-e3-infinity-blade-dungeons