E3 2012 Preview

With mere days to go until the Electronic Entertainment Expo opens its doors on June 4th, the biggest video game event of the year is officially upon us. Time to start getting incredibly excited, absurdly optimistic and irrationally terrified. OK, scratch that last part, but this thing is gigantic and packed with thousands of awesome video games. Get ready!

IGN will be in Los Angeles covering every second of it, playing every secret demo behind closed doors, kidnapping developers for exclusive intel and attending every event and industry party. And through the magic of the internet, you'll be right there with us and probably wearing your pajamas. Lucky you! So what can we expect to blow the roof off the L.A. Convention Center this year?

Exclusives are nice, but let's be honest: The best games every year come out on a bunch of different platforms. Your Call of Duties, your Resident Evils, your Pac-Mans, all of this wonderful stuff is available for everyone. E3 2012 is bringing some titles that'll knock millions of pants and/or socks off. Keep a sharp eye out for these multiplatform monstrosities.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Let's be honest: the next Call of Duty game could be a glorified map pack with a minimal single player campaign and it would still sell millions of copies and be critically well received just on the basis of its core shooting mechanics being so fantastically solid. But not content to just bank off the franchise's previous accomplishments, Black Ops 2 developer Treyarch is bringing a ton of new ideas, story content and gameplay mechanics (including horses!) to the table this time. The story branches through time periods, from 1970 to 1980 to 2025 with the weaponry scaling to match the respective settings, meaning you'll jump from the traditional Call of Duty war settings you're used to, to battles against cybernetic unmanned aircrafts in massive bouts of futuristic robo-warfare. We expect to see the lid fully blown off this game in the weeks to come, but until then, here's us getting excited for the future of HORSE WARFARE:

Assassin's Creed III

Assassin's Creed III brings us out of the Renaissance and into the American Revolution. It's interesting to see Ubisoft giving each numbered Assassin's Creed game its own unique angle, cast of characters, unique abilities, and disparate settings. The frontier isn't like any other area we've explored, and swinging through trees, climbing cliffs, and sauntering through cities should be as entertaining as ever with the new main man, Connor. Hunting animals and hiding in the wild gives us even more stuff to do in early-era USA, too, as we search for answers for Desmond. 

Tomb Raider

We haven't seen a ton of new information slip out about the new Tomb Raider aside from it's upsetting delay to 2013, but that's not stopping us from getting excited over what we expect at E3. This gritty reboot puts Lara in the realest and most humanistic survival situations the franchise has yet to see. The game is still a bit of a ways away, but some amazing new screens and trailers will go a long way in holding us over.

Lost Planet 3

Lost Planet 3 surprised us all when it was unveiled at Capcom’s Captivate event earlier this year. That’s not because it existed – let’s face it, what game doesn’t get a sequel these days – but because it was so polished and so unlike anything we’ve seen from the franchise before. Make no mistake, we’re still talking mechs walking around icy tundra, but the emphasis on a hybrid of first and third-person combat combined with a focus on the game’s lead character has us impressed. Let’s hope the game plays as well as it looks.

Resident Evil 6

The announcement of Resident Evil 6 at the beginning of this year sucked the oxygen out of the IGN office. For days all we could talk about were zombies, survival horror, Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield. Through our sources we learned more about the game than we ever expected, and the notion that Leon, Chris and series newcomer Jake will each be playable alongside their partners has us excited about the scope of the game. We still haven’t played the thing though. Let’s hope Capcom changes that at E3.

Hitman: Absolution

Agent 47 is up to his old tricks, which involves strangling, setting traps, and blending in. Absolution is arguably the most violent Hitman game to date, with the marketing material and early in-game footage showing a particularly vicious bald guy massacring everyone in messed-up ways. Whatever works. Hopefully he keeps up with the sneaking during his slaughtering.

Microsoft's press conference is bound to bring up entertainment, social, and Kinect, but this is also a huge year for some of the Xbox 360's most important exclusives. First-party developers are cranking away on huge stuff, but the third party studios could bring some excellent stuff as well.

Halo 4

After months of trickled information and minimalist reveals, Halo 4 will finally get some spotlight at the press conference. Expect to learn more about the campaign, especially the new threat, and the more personal story of Master Chief. In addition, we’re expecting to finally play Spartan Ops co-op stories, as well as the new competitive multiplayer mode, Infinity. Microsoft won’t pull any punches – 2012 will absolutely be the year of Halo, and getting 343’s efforts in front of everyone in a grand fashion will be priority one.

Fable The Journey

Peter Molyneux's final project with Lionhead Studios is the nuttiest yet, scrapping action/adventure for a more serene experience on Kinect. The Journey isn't just about the titular quest, though, as there's enough enemy encounters and combat variables to keep it interesting. Whether or not Fable ultimately works as a first-person Kinect action game is TBD, but we're likely to learn more about its true goal -- rather than just its broad ambition -- at E3.

It's been a curious buildup to E3 for the PlayStation brand. With about a month to go, the company blew the lid off of God of War: Ascension, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, LittleBigPlanet Karting and The Last of Us. Why? Our reasoning: it's time to announce some cool stuff for the PlayStation Vita.

The handheld debuted in February around the world (except for Japan, which had it in December), and since then, poor sales figures have stolen the headlines. Sony needs to come out at E3 and pimp the PlayStation 3 exclusives and at the same time show you why you should believe in this handheld. So what do we think takes the press conference stage and knocks your socks off? Well, smart money's on...

The Last of Us

Yes, IGN has already seen the game in action, but that was an old build. Developer Naughty Dog has already said that it has new stuff in the works for E3 2012, and with PlayStation's affinity for massive screens and awesome demos, the press conference sure seems like Joel and Ellie's next stop. Will we find out about the inclusion or exclusion of multiplayer or an exact release date? Probably not -- but expect some huge moment probably packing those infected mushroom people we haven't seen since the debut trailer.

Call of Duty Vita

Here's what we know about Call of Duty Vita -- it is coming. That's it, and that sucks. With Resistance: Burning Skies about to become the first true dual stick shooter to arrive on a handheld, expect Activision to roll out this follow-up at E3. Will it be Black Ops 2? Will it be an original game? Will it nail everything BobbyA1984 put in his COD wishlist? We bet we find out next week.

Assassin's Creed Vita

Again -- we know that there's an Assassin's Creed game in the works for the PlayStation Vita, but that's all we know. If you missed the memo, Assassin's Creed III looks awesome and is going to blow the doors off of E3. Seems like Ubisoft would be silly not to show what the Vita developers have been toiling away on. Is it a tie-in to AC3? Is it a port of AC3? Is it a brand new tale? Let us know!

God of War: Ascension

Colin and Goldfarb have already seen a ton of God of War: Ascension, but they've only seen multiplayer. In fact, when Sony confirmed the game, the spokespeople made a point to only talk about multiplayer. With all that info out of the way, PlayStation's E3 conference is the perfect place to talk about what Kratos is up to in the single-player campaign, because, well, that's what we all care about, right?

Quantic Dream's Next Game

Perhaps it's a pipedream, but Heavy Rain developer made a big deal of its Kara short film at GDC. This video wasn't the studio's next game, but it was a demo of the tech its next game will use. Normally, we'd say that means Quantic is toiling away at the new game on the engine it showed and that an E3 appearance would never happen, but in interviews, developer David Cage said that Kara film was a year old. So... what was Quantic Dream doing for that last year? Perhaps getting ready for this big day? We can hope.

New Exclusives

Well, it's our website and we can be as general as we want. The fact of the matter is PlayStation has the most impressive stable of first-party developers in the industry, and a lot of them have been quietly chipping away at projects. What are the Killzone devs up to? What does 2012 look like for Vita releases? Chances are we're going to have one hell of a roadmap when the PlayStation conference is said and done.

Nintendo has a lot riding on this year’s E3. It’s where the company plans to fully unveil its next generation of home console, Wii U. It’s also the Big N’s big chance to convince hardcore and casual gamers alike that its tablet controller truly is the future of gaming. We expect tons of new info about what this new system can do, and at least some vague idea of what kind of software we’ll see once it launches. We also expect updates on a few 3DS titles the company has kept mum about, like Luigi’s Mansion 2, Paper Mario 3DS and Animal Crossing 3DS, as well as the recently announced New Super Mario Bros. 2. If things work out, we’re also hoping to get some new game announcements, and perhaps some global release dates for some of those awesome Japan-only games we’ve been missing out on (we’re looking at you Fire Emblem: Awakening, Project X Zone and Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle).

New Super Mario Bros. 2

 

Hitting store shelves this August, Mario’s New side-scrolling adventure will see the return of some beloved staples from Super Mario Bros. 3 - particularly a more traditional Raccoon Suit, the P-Wing and the power meter.

New Super Mario Bros. Mii

 

It seems our first real taste of HD Mario will be based on the New Super Mario Bros. Mii tech demo from E3 2011. As such, expect it to be a 2D side-scroller with multiplayer support and, most likely, the incorporation of Mii characters.

Pikmin 3

 

The game that’s been about five years in the making, this year we’ll finally get to see the third entry in Shigeru Miyamoto’s Pikmin franchise. Now that it’s on Wii U, expect it to make clever use of the Wii U tablet and continue the story of Olimar and his little Pikmin slaves/buddies.

 

Years ago, back when Bill Gates would walk on stage and Live Anywhere was a new and exciting thing, Microsoft’s E3 press conference usually had some interesting news for PC gamers. That’s no longer the case these days, and that’s just fine. To some degree the PC gaming community seems to have moved on from this particular event. Blizzard no longer attends, Valve isn’t doing anything for E3 this year, and many interesting PC games like Firefall and Guild Wars 2 won’t be there. E3 in 2012 is more about new console hardware hysteria and what the big three are doing to ensure their next big steps into the increasingly decentralized, rapidly changing future of video games are smart ones. In many ways, these companies will be trying to capitalize on what’s happening in the PC gaming scene right now, where payment models, distribution strategies and game design experimentation are as wild and exciting as they’ve ever been.

Electronic Arts

A highlight here, aside from whatever announcements are made at EA’s press conference, will be more information on the promising Maxis-developed, PC-only SimCity. EA also has Star Wars: The Old Republic, and though the recent 1.3 patch reveal shows BioWare will be adding in a group finder, it’s likely E3 will be the venue for much larger-scale reveals  as to how they plan on stopping subscriber loss. Also, it’s hard to imagine EA’s executive walking off the E3 stage without mentioning something big about Battlefield, Crysis 3 and Medal of Honor, which won’t be PC-exclusive, but barring any programming catastrophes, will look best when played on a PC.

E3s MMOs

No console maker has really figured out how best to integrate an MMO into their platform (though, mysteriously, an Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XI still exists), so this genre is still almost entirely PC-based. Perfect World will show up with Cryptic’s Neverwinter and the Monster Hunter-like Raiderz, Sony Online Entertainment will be showing off a multitude of online games, including Planetside 2, which looks especially awesome. Trion will bring Defiance, Rift and End of Nations to the show, and maybe we’ll hear something positive about Square Enix’s beleaguered Final Fantasy XIV as it progresses toward Version 2.0. And ideally we should be able to get a first look at Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls Online, which beyond Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and The Secret World is the next major MMO on the horizon.

Cross-Platform Overload

Most games on display at E3 will be promoted on consoles, but for many PC versions do, in fact, exist. You just don’t see them at the show, because it’s kind of hard to fumble around with a keyboard and mouse while standing up and presenting a new game to a crowd that’s more than eager to erupt with laughter over any mistakes. Over the past few years Capcom has appealed to PC gamers with versions of its fighting and action games, and it seems as though that will continue with Resident Evil 6 and Lost Planet 3. THQ is bringing Darksiders II and Metro Last Light, Square Enix will show off Hitman: Absolution, Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs (and for the love of everything holy, where is Thief IV?), Ubisoft will showcase Assassin’s Creed III and Far Cry 3, and the fan-requested Dark Souls: Prepare to Die edition PC version will be on display from Namco. 2K Games has an especially cool lineup this year with Borderlands 2 and XCOM: Enemy Unknown, and there’ll certainly be more surprises at the press conferences.

The trickiest part of covering mobile games is how incredibly fast the platform moves. Unlike consoles, where members of the press and the public know about a game for months or years in advance, iOS and Android games are revealed for the very first time one week and then released the next.

This means it’s impossible to predict all the iOS hotness that will be at the show. With that in mind, two games stand out as titles all gamers should keep their eyes on:

Infinity Blade Dungeons

Although we’ve already gone hands-on with Infinity Blade: Dungeons once, we’re very keen to see more of the dungeon-crawling spin-off at The Big Show. That first demo showed off the basics of combat and weapon forging. With any luck we’ll get a peek at more loot, more enemies and more environments at E3.

The Act

The Act is one of the most intriguing mobile games I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen hundreds. The game’s hand-drawn 2D animation immediately catches everyone’s attention, but their first question is always the same: “It looks great, but how does it play?”

It’s a fair question – older gamers will remember Dragon’s Lair and other barely-playable interactive movies. So far The Act seems much more like the real deal. Gamers control protagonist Edward via a variety of touch-controlled swiping gestures, making The Act more of a true interactive, playable cartoon. Hopefully at E3 all of the questions surrounding The Act will be put to rest.

As you can see, E3 is going to be a totally fantastic, insane week for gamers. What are you looking forward to most? Which company do you think will have the best show? Sound off in the comments below, and keep it locked to IGN between now and E3 as we continue to dominate E3 2012 coverage.



Source : http://www.ign.com

A Complete Guide to iOS Pinball

The pinball industry began dying a slow death in 1996, when the first of the major manufacturer closed its doors. Pinball machines are large, require a lot of maintenance, and simply don't bring in as many quarters as an arcade machine or pool table occupying the same space.

Thankfully for pinball-enjoying gamers everywhere that don't want to plunk quarter after quarter in the movie theater game room or drop $4,000 for a table of their own, the quality of digital pinball has been steadily improving year after year.

But which ones to buy? IGN has sifted through the dozens of pinball titles on the App Store to give you the full scoop on which pinball games are the real deal, and which apps are imposters with funky ball physics.

A note on physics 
As it stands now, true pinball fanatics don't feel digital pinball physics are up to snuff. They complain about "floaty" balls and other elements that "just don't feel right." As a more casual pinball player growing up, I have no complaints about the current state of digital pinball physics. It's an issue unlikely to effect anyone but the most hardcore.

There are currently two pinball apps that any self-respecting iPhone or iPad owner must have on their device: Pinball Arcade &
Zen Pinball. Both feature solid ball physics, several top-notch tables, and online leaderboards to see who among your friends is the true pinball wizard. Both apps also have fundamentally different approaches to the digital pinball market.

Pinball Arcade - FarSight Studios

FarSight Studios has been making digital pinball for nearly a decade, and Pinball Arcade is the culmination of that effort and experience. The app offers up painstakingly accurate digital recreations of real-world pinball tables originally manufactured by Williams, Bally, Stern and Gottlieb.

Pinball Arcade costs $0.99, and for that price gamers get full access to one free table, rotating monthly. Other tables can be individually purchased for $1.99 - $3.99. Right now six tables are available in total, although FarSight has announced its intention to support the app for years, eventually offering up the majority of the top 40 tables of all-time.



What makes Pinball Arcade a must-own is simple: the app offers up faithful recreations of
. Theater of Magic, Medieval Madness and Tales of the Arabian Nights are all universally loved for good reason. They are incredibly complex, with intricate requirements for "progressing" through each table's various rules and stages. They also flow incredibly well, allowing casual fans to have fun hitting ramps and activating accidental multiballs.

If you sit down for a lengthy session with any of these tables to slowly ferret out its secrets and intricacies and then go back to a pinball machine of a lesser design, the difference will be obvious.

Paying $2.99 or more for a single digital pinball table may seem like a lot in an App Store economy where incredible values can be had for $0.99, but these pinball experiences are worth the price.

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Zen Pinball - Zen Studios

Zen Pinball is the other pillar at the top tier of portable pinball bliss. Unlike FarSight, Zen Studios is producing a collection of brand-new, digital-only tables. This allows Zen's tables to include features that simply aren't possible when slavishly recreating real world pinball experiences.

Zen Pinball is available as a free download, and includes Sorcerer's Lair directly out of the box. Five more machines are available for purchase – three licensed Marvel tables for $1.99, and two original tables for $0.99, making Zen Pinball marginally more affordable than Pinball Arcade.



Zen's original designs are both a blessing and a curse. In terms of pure quality and fun factor they simply can't go toe-to-toe with Pinball Arcade's best-of-all-time collection. But Zen Studio's original tables Epic Quest and Sorcerer's Lair show that digital-only tables have a lot of potential.

Sorcerer's Lair features several creative pinball mini games. At specific times the player's ball will be transported to a special mini-table to squish spiders or complete another simple objective. The newer Epic Quest is even more elaborate. As players progress they fight monsters and outfit an adventurer, RPG style. There's even pieces of purple epic loot to collect. Hopefully Zen has more tricks up its sleeve to further increase the complexity of their pinball offerings, while still keeping a solid foundation of ramps, bumpers and flippers.

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Rescued the princess in Tales of the Arabian Nights? Defeated the entire cadre of enemies in Epic Quest? There's even more quality pinball to be had on iOS. The titles below might not be quite as polished as Pinball Arcade or Zen Pinball, but they're also no slouches either, and offer up more hours silver ball-slinging fun.

Pinball HD Collection

Pinball HD from Russian studio Gameprom ruled the iOS pinball roost when it was originally released over two years ago. The tables aren't quite as complex and don't flow quite as smoothly as the best of the best, but Pinball HD still has a lot to like. The only reason this collection isn't in the must-own pile is because it got muscled out by the near-perfect efforts from Zen and Farsight. The free download includes one table, with nine more available for $0.99 - $2.99. The highlights from the purchasable tables include The Deep and Da Vinci Pinball.

Gameprom Standalone Releases


Note: Gameprom's tables that have been collected in its Pinball HD Collection are also available for individual purchase. Instead of cluttering up your iDevice by nabbing the indivual apps, buy them via In-App Purchase from Gameprom's Pinball Collection app linked above.

Frogger Pinball

Frogger Pinball is not to be ignored. Konami's "pinball adventure" is sure to make pinball purists roll their eyes, but the title offers up a huge amount of content including a story mode, several unique stages, boss battles, power-ups and more. The game was developed by Fuse Games, makers of the excellent 2005 DS pinball release Metroid Prime Pinball.

Sonic Spinball

Sonic Spinball isn't a very good pinball experience in any objective sense, but for $0.99 the title is an excellent nostalgia-trip for 20 and 30-something gamers. The title was originally released for the Genesis in 1993, only to resurface on the App Store in 2010.

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Can't get enough? Fill your pinball app folder with some of these off-the-wall choices:

Pinball Destruction

Destroy elements from the pinball table itself to progress. It's oddly compelling!

 

Undead Attack! Pinball

Assault roving zombies and buy power-ups in this gate defense/pinball hybrid.

 

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At one point these titles may have been worth considering, or may get hyped up for other reasons, but they can safely be skipped in favor of the higher quality options outlined above.

Pinball Dreaming / Pinball Dreams HD

Pinball Dreams hit the Amiga way back in 1992, making it one of the very first digital pinball sims. Deveoper
Cowboy Rodeo initially released Pinball Dreaming, a faithful iOS port of four classic tables. Later, Pinball Dreams HD offered up remade versions of the original Amiga tables. Pinball Dreams isn't offensively bad or low quality – the pinball gameplay just feels dated and clunky compared to more modern efforts. The title doesn't have the Sonic the Hedgehog nostalgia to fall back on, to boot.

Ice Road Pinball

Ice Road Pinball pops up across the net as a pinball release gamers should consider, but this is largely because developer Matmi was one of the first out the door with an original iPhone pinball game, first releasing Ice Road Pinball in 2009. The title has long since been outclassed by better releases. Matmi's pinball follow-up Multiball Pinball is better, and is worth a look for gamers that just can't get enough pinball on-the-go. But it is still far from being one of the greats.

ESPN Pinball

ESPN Pinball is a bit of an oddity. It contains three sports-themed tables and is surprisingly feature-rich, but it simply doesn't play very well.

Pinball Tristan

Lots of gamers have fond memories of Pinball Tristan from the 90s, but the hard truth is that the game simply isn't that good. Especially in the face of better nostalgic options. If you enjoyed Tristan 20 years ago this is a solid port to relive those memories, but gamers looking for excellent mobile pinball can safely skip it.

Retro Pinball

Epic Pinball (retitled Retro Pinball for its iOS port) was originally published in 1993 by Epic. Yes, Epic. Small world! Like many of the other retro titles now on the App Store, Retro Pinball is best enjoyed as an old school diversion rather than a genuine representation of what digital pinball can now do.

Lesser Indie Efforts

There are literally dozens of other individual digital pinball tables on sale from indie sources – Hyperspace Pinball, Dino Madness Pinball, Pinball Massacre… the list goes on and on. All can safely be ignored in favor of the better-designed and more full-featured tables from larger studios.

Source : http://wireless.ign.com/articles/122/1224463p1.html