I sat down to see about 20 minutes’ worth of Dark Souls III at E3 2015. My reaction to the first 10 minutes? “Yes, this is Dark Souls.” My reaction to the latter minutes? “Yes! This is Dark Souls!”
Game players reserve a special kind of cynicism for series that oversaturate the market, and as special as
Miyazaki says that fluid controls were a major focus for Dark Souls III, and to that end, not only are the dual blades apparently ultra-responsive to player input, but short-bow attacks can be combined with slashes, allowing you to land shots quickly, even under duress. Miyazaki compared these moves to those you might see from The Lord of the Rings’ Legolas, though I didn’t see anything quite that acrobatic. The tour de force of the presentation, of course, was the boss fight that closed it--and what a boss fight it was. Miyazaki referred to the lithe, imposing knight that descended from the ceiling as the Dancer of the Frigid Valley. This beastly foe moved about the arena with moves you might see in a ferocious ballet, and the creature’s ghostly cape and veil made its unpredictable moves all the more frightening.
The fight grew more and tense as the beast swung its flaming blade, which had an amazingly long reach, and set the room aflame as the battle raged on. Alas, the demo ended when the player succumbed to one last sizzling swipe, and my reservations had been vanquished, at least in part. Do I still worry that Dark Souls III is retreading too much familiar ground too soon? A little. But at least it is ground that has proven itself worth treading in the first place.
The PC Gaming Show press conference ends off today's round of E3 2015 press conferences. And there are sure to be a lot of PC games shown.So here's a list of all the big games we see during the conference as they are shown. Keep checking back as time goes on to see what else gets added to the list.
The version on the PlayStation 4, and then we have the remake coming to PS4,” Nomura said through a translator. “You’ll have this extremely, very, very pretty FFVII existing on the same plane. We feel that if that happens, it’s like, why have the same exact game?
“We think that if a game is on a certain platform and that platform becomes obsolete, then we’d recommend playing the new port version,” he added.
Currently, all we know about the Final Fantasy VII Remake is that it is now in production with key members of the original game’s staff on board, including producer Yoshinori Kitase and scenario writer Kazushige Nojima. Other developer details are unknown.
Square Enix showed off a bunch of new videos from its upcoming games. It can be hard keeping track of all of them, so we've gathered them in one place.
Nintendo showed off a lot of new trailers for its upcoming games at its E3 2015 event. It gave some more news about some games and announced a few other titles. Because it can be hard to keep track of all of the trailers, we've gathered them in one place.
Check out all the videos below:
Amiibo/Skylanders Trailer:
Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival:
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer:
Fire Emblem Fates:
Genei Ibun Roku #FE/Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem:
The last few Need For Speeds have done a commendable job catering to different driving preferences, but this latest installment just might be the most accessible version yet. The franchise has been around long enough that it has different fanbases from different eras, whether it's the period when the cars tended to grip the pavement and the era when there was more of an emphasis on drifting. Customization and tuning is commonplace in all kinds of racing games, and while the next offers a wealth of options to personalize your handing, having a Grip vs Drift slider makes the experience very pick up-and-play.
Given that arcade racing is my favorite genre, I'm often confident that I can place well (if not first) in my multiplayer racing booth demos at E3 year after year. Need For Speed threw me for a loop, given that its design is not as straightforward as point to point races. In a form of thoughtful rebranding Need For Speed's multiplayer score attack is called 8-Player Rep Attack. It keys in on the kind of skill-based driving that has been very popular these many years. It's not surprising for Need For Speed developer Ghost Games, which is primarily made up of former talent from Criterion Games, a studio known for the risk-taking driving from the Burnout series. From slick drifting to near miss car passes, you'll earn points toward your rep when you're competing with seven others at Rep Attack.
My match started with a point-to-point race, and while I placed first, I didn't earn the most rep points, probably because I did not drift enough and stayed far from incoming traffic. That wasn't the end of the competitive session, though. With the match over, every driver was left with several minutes to accumulate rep points however they saw fit. Some opted to lure cops into a chase, others just free roamed. Within my seven minute time limit, I managed to do all these things and ended up with a very respectable third place ranking.
In all, I enjoyed how the controls and my preferred grip setting felt. More importantly, the hands-on experience managed to emulate the intensity and visual realism of the flashy E3 2015 trailer. The isolated feeling from touring the dark streets of Ventura Bay (a fictional version of Los Angeles) were punctuated by the light-bleeds from the street lights and headlights. Need For Speed's attention to detail is never more apparent than in the garages. Rather than present them in their most pristine state, the cars in your collection have a "just driven" look, as if you had each of your cars out in the wet weather sometime in the last couple hours.
Time marches ever forward. So it is in life, and so it is with the Anno series, which glided into the future with its previous installment,
I appreciate some of the newer tweaks in Anno 2205. Bridges now connect your islands, and you do not have to worry about traffic jams. Modules allow you to upgrade structures by using surrounding land to enhance their production. And Anno 2070's ark has been replaced by a spaceport, which rockets a space shuttle towards the moon when the time comes, much to the delight of your applauding populace. There's also the matter of Anno 2070's always-online requirement, which has been unsurprisingly scrapped for Anno 2205.
And yet I didn't get to participate in any missions, make contact with other civilizations, or engage in combat when I played. Without having a sense of Anno 2205's unique flavor, it was hard to get a handle on anything beyond the basics. The game is quite literally shooting for the moon--and I hope that the coming months reveal more about Ubisoft's PC exclusive before its November release. Until then, all I can do is fill in the gaps with my imagination, and hope that reality meets or exceeds the fantastical scenarios my mind concocts.
Today during an E3 2015 presentation, owners to wonder if they would ever come to their console.
Now, Howard has confirmed that mods will be available on PS4...eventually. Howard stressed that Bethesda and Microsoft worked together to bring Fallout 4 mods to Xbox One, and said "the timetable is fuzzy" regarding when mods will come to PS4.
We'll have more on Fallout 4, mods, and other topics related to the RPG later this week from E3 2015.
We get a look at Battleborn from our stage on the show floor of E3 2015
Take a first look at Rising Storm 2 - Vietnam in this new trailer from E3 2015.
Lucy James sits down with Ali Rapp of Nintendo to check out some new gameplay of Star Fox Zero on the GameSpot E3 2015 stage.
We bring the legendary Tony Hawk to the GameSpot stage to discuss Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 with Danny O'Dwyer.
Take a look at the E3 2015 trailer for Freedom Planet.
Check out the E3 2015 trailer for Forma.8.
Check out the stage demo for Guitar Hero Live from E3 2015.
At E3 2015, Rob talks with Alex about his hands-on impressions with Star Wars: Battlefront's Cooperative split-screen mode.
Justin and Peter debate about Star Fox's new controls for the Wii U.
