Pre Gamescom Conferences

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Gamescom has officially kicked off and the European mega show, as always, leads the way with new information from the industry. Yesterday, before the expo officially opened its doors to the public, we were all treated to press conferences by EA and Sony. EA showcased their upcoming titles and new features they hope to implement with their next generation of games and Sony officially announced the release date of the PS4 while also showing a few new features of the PS4 not shown at E3 along with a more attractive line up for the PSVita. Microsoft held a private conference and has stayed relatively quiet thus far, possibly still reeling from their PR nightmare that was E3 (better to keep their mouths shut now and just nod yes at the consumers demands). They do have a very solid exclusive line up announced but will that be enough to sway people back to the Xbox while Sony kept riding their wave further down stream? Here are my takeaways from the conferences:

Microsoft

Had to watch a cam video of this conference since Microsoft did not do a formal public press event. A few games were shown but nothing new in that department. Microsoft made a big talking point on Indie development and the self publishing platform for Xbox One. Things like no fees for publishing and the announcement of providing Development Kits to indie studios at no cost until the consumer version of Xbox One is brought up to the standard of being a Development Kit itself was nice to hear from them. Then they showcased a few games like the new Fable Legends and gave a teaser video for The Fighter Within which is using the new Kinect, a small video for The Division showcasing the use of the companion device (smartglass/tablet), the mention of their partnership with Mojang and the availability of Minecraft while showing new footage for Cobalt from Mojang, and then it ended with Call of Duty: Ghosts. Kinect was then brought up with all the new features and how it is a great improvement to the Xbox360 version of Kinect. Kinect Sports Rivals was then shown off with the feature of creating your very own personalized champion for the game. Microsoft then touched on their partnership with EA, announcing that Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare and Peggle 2 will be released first for Xbox One before being released to the rest of the consoles. The partnership also included exclusive features for FIFA 14 which is huge for the European market. That marked the end of the presentation from Microsoft. As I said above, it was a very informal very quiet presentation that alleviated some apprehension about the console and gave the consumer some thoughts to re-evaluate the company moving into the holiday season.

EA

EA came out to showcase their big games for this year and next, and how their games have evolved using the next-gen systems. Even with all the controversy that has surrounded the company in the past due to bad business practices and poor execution, EA seemed to be coming into Gamescom with a little bit of momentum due to their recently released Humble Origin Bundle that was made available last week. The publishing giant has started to play damage control and seems to be on its way to redemption, but only time will tell. First up for them was a showcase of The Sims 4. Just another entry in the beloved series that will push the limitations of the player to greater bounds. The new F2P Command & Conquer was shown briefly as a multiplayer event (most scripted gameplay EVER). Seems like they might try and make an e-sport out of this title (2 "casters" were providing play by play). A developers blog was shown for Dragon Age: Inquisition and this next-gen title is starting to look more and more impressive. Hopefully the game will fix what the previous installments in the series have failed at and will be an enjoyable experience. New features and information was then revealed for the much anticipated Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. The ability to play as the zombies and an all new "Boss Mode" was shown. I couldn't be happier at the opportunity that has been given to Popcap. the original PvZ was an amazingly fun and hilarious game and for them to be given the backing of a big publisher and more money to work with is great news for them and I wish them the best of luck on future titles. EA Sports UFC was then presented showing off the dynamic body rendering and the brutality of the fights on the engine. For fans of the UFC, this is looking like a visually impressive release that will further blur lines of reality vs technology. Need for Speed Rivals was then looked at. As I am not much of a racing fan (barring Burnout) I can't say much for the title although the graphics look stunningly beautiful and the customization options seem endless. Next up was Titanfall and wow wow wow this game is looking great! The Xbox One (and PC!) exclusive from Respawn is poised to be first big heavy hitter on a next-gen system. More information on FIFA 14 was then shown. Things like FIFA Legends and the showcasing of online play look to bring players a more social and involved experience with the top selling sports franchise game on the market. Finally to close out the conference was Battlefield 4. The beta was announced as being early October with the formal release on October 29. The main attraction was the showing off of more features that the Frostbite 3 engine can do including what they call "levolution" which creates dynamic environments for players (a very ambitious goal). Start up the debate on Battlefield vs Call of Duty once more.

Sony

Sony had plenty to present in their conference. Sony really focused on the "Playstation ecosystem" they have created using the PS3, PS4 and PSVita. The show opened to a navigation of the PS4 OS showing the fluid movement between games and other processes. The real show then kicked off with the showcase of the new Grand Turismo 6 coming in December for PS3 along with a full length feature film that was inspired by the GT series being in development. Little Big Planet has been given a free to play game for PS3 called Hub which seems to involve a lot of social interaction between players. Also announced was Sonys relationship with Rockstar for Grand Theft Auto V and timed exclusives for the PS3.

The next part of the conference focused on the PSVita. Firstly a price drop was announced (down to $199) then came the games:
Batman Arkham Origins
LEGO Marvel
Football Manager
Borderlands 2 (really impressed that this made it to a handheld console, really shows where technology is)
A few indie games (Starbound, Fez, Future Lab)
Then Sony touched on indie development within the Playstation ecosystem and showed off a few of those like Murasaki Baby (interesting art style / very Tim Burton esque), Big Fest (great concept for discovering music, especially unsigned bands), Rogue Legacy, Hotline Miami, N++, Volume (made by Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell) Guns of Icarus Online, and Wasteland Kings.

Finally, Sony moved on to the PS4. Harping on their talk of indie development, the first game shown was Everybody's Gone to the Rapture from the indie studio The Chinese Room who created Dear Esther. This visually beautiful game is looking like a spiritual successor to the Myst games of the past. Next shown was Rime from Tequila Works. This artsy adventure game looks like if Ico and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker had a child. Moving to the more notable games, a trailer for the re-imagination of the 1989 classic Shadow of the Beast was shown, then came new footage for Infamous: Second Sun followed by Killzone: Shadow Fall. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was then shown along with a new feature that can be used between the PS4 and PSVita called remote play. Basically the feature lets you play your PS4 games on the Vita which to me is a very attractive feature and really shows off what Sony means when they talk about the "Playstation ecosystem". Remote play using the Vita is a great integration tool to sell more of the handheld device. After that feature, Ubisoft came out and showed a bit more footage of the much anticipated Watch Dogs along with an announcement of a feature film in the works

With all the games set for the PS4, they announced some rather unexpected features. At E3, it was said that Ustream was going to be the featured streaming host for the PS4, but at this event, the directors announced the use of TwitchTV coming to PS4. What was thought to be a Microsoft exclusive has now been integrated with the competitor. This to me, was HUGE for Sony. Ustream is good at what it does but Twitch is by far the most popular and most recognizable streaming service available, so to see that snatched up is a big win for Sony when it was thought that the streaming giant was going to be held exclusively by Microsoft. For all you Europeans out there, Sony announced plans to work with service providers to bring broadband packages to Europe which may alleviate the dreadful internet speed that is seen in some parts of Europe, a big win in the EU market. Other points brought up were the price drop for the PS3 (12GB for $199) and the statement that there have been over 1 million pre-orders for the PS4 which is fantastic news for the company.

So that was a run down of the major announcements made before the expo officially kicked off to the public. Tomorrow I will cover all the other games announced and various news coming out of Europe (News for the new Diablo III expansion, Destiny, The Elder Scrolls Online, and plenty more).

Thanks for reading and until next time:

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