E3 wrapped up last week in LA, announcing the hottest new video games coming from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo & their third party developers. Sony announced 25 ‘Free to Play’ games for the next 12 months, a Ratchet and Clank movie, Playstation TV (their mini console that can play PSVita & PS network games, along with streaming your PS4 to a separate TV), PS Now (a service that lets you stream games to your PS3, PS4, or Vita, PlayStation TV, or Bravia TV’s), PlayStation camera, and a variety of other new advancements.
In addition, Sony also introduced an Xbox Kinnect type of motion tracking camera that lets you narrate your own walk through videos, along with Project Morpheus, their virtual reality headset. Sony’s exclusives include Little Big Planet, Abzu, an undersea exploration game, Metal Gear Solid The Phantom Pain, Infamous First Light, Bloodborne, No Mans Sky, (an amazingly detailed space exploration game that starts every player on a different planet), Let It Die, Last of Us Remastered, and GTA V coming to PS4 before Xbox One.
Nintendo announced their new Amiibo figurine line that will store data to load onto in game characters via NFC, much like the Skylanders and Disney infinity toys. Their presentation had animation by Robot Chicken & showings include Legend of Zelda, Super Smash Bros 4, Splatoon (a third person paintball shooter that lets you use strategies to conquer territory and transform into a squid), Mario Maker (a cool editor for 8 bit or New Super Mario Bros U), Hyrule Warriors, a Dynasty Warriors Zelda crossover, Yoshi’s Wooly World, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Captain Toad (who got some teaser levels in Super Mario 3D World), and Bayonetta 2, which will include the original game with the disc.
News was also “leaked” about a new Starfox game in development from Time magazine in an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. Microsoft decided to keep their presentation focused on upcoming software, showing Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, Forza Motor Sports, Evolve, Dragon Age Inquisition, Sunset Overdrive, Fable Legends, Project Spark, Halo Master Chief Collection, Dead Rising 3 multiplayer DLC, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, Phantom Dust, The Division, Scalebound, & Crackdown.
All three companies had a strong showing at E3 this year, with indie sizzle reels showing downloadable games, and dozens more exciting installations to look forward to, no matter which console you prefer, making everyone a winner. For me, Zelda and Phantom Dust were my favorite moments. The graphics and experiences that are possible on PS4 & XBOX ONE are just amazing and I’m pretty excited about some of these games and new PlayStation hardware they have coming out.
It looks like there’s plenty of reasons to start thinking about upgrading with all of the trade-in incentives being offered by GameStop & Microsoft.
Do you already have a next generation console, and if not, which one will you choose?
