Sony Press Conference - E3 2011

Miss the Sony event at E3? Get Part 1 of the Sony Press Conference at E3 2011 straight from IGN and see all the epic video game reveals.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

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WWE’12

Bigger, Badder, Better…

THQ put on the newly announced WWE’12. While the Smackdown vs. Raw franchise is officially dead; a new era is taking shape.One that looks to provide the most fun and authentic virtual WWE experience ever created and one that stands out from every ones favorite WWE No Mercy game.

Some automatically assumed that this game looks the same as SvR’11 but just more polished. Well we our here to tell you there is more to WWE’12 then meets the eye .. THQ has decided to take a more dramatic yet action-oriented route with their menu scheme. While the art direction is solid, the music is pretty dramatic. I can’t help but think that Randy Orton is running down a street in slow motion while chasing John Cena

THQ has taken away the use of the right stick for grapple moves and have brought back the face buttons as the main focus for your wrestling action. The controls are as follows:

• A-  Grapple
• B-  Irish Whip/Pin
• X- Striking
• Y- Finishers
• LB- Action Button
• RB- “New” Limb Targeting System
• LT- Running
• RT- Counters
• DPad- Taunts
• LS-Move
• RS- Switching Opponents Position
• LT+RT- Dragging Opponent

For those who have been playing the SvR series for a long time now, you will get accustomed to these controls pretty quickly. I can see newcomers to the franchise feeling better off, especially if they play it at E3, as the controls are just as user friendly as WWE All Stars while still keeping the ability to have a more deep and enhanced gameplay experience.
Quick note: You can switch to last years control scheme if you prefer.

One of the newest additions to the gameplay is the new limb targeting system. When in grapple, you can hold RB and press one of the face buttons. Each button will represent a part of the body you attack; Y for the head, X or B for the arms, and A for the legs. The more damage you do on each limb, specific attributes or abilities will be affected depending on the area. Example: if you focus on the head, the opponent will be groggy longer and will have a hard time getting up. Or if you focus on the arms, when you lock in a submission, the percentage of your opponent giving up goes higher (especially when using Alberto’s Cross-Arm Breaker finisher). There was one specific problem with this as there was no way to counter this button interaction but this is just the E3 build and will surely be fixed by its release date.

A huge addition, or replacement, is the new “Breaking Point” submission system. THQ has been hearing your cries the past few years and the old submission system is gone. Replaced is a new and more fun submission mini game in which you and your opponent mash the face buttons or move the joysticks as the word “Breaking Point” fills up. If it fills up, your character will submit so be sure to button mash like your life depended on it. You will also have the ability to drag your body towards the ropes to try and execute a rope break. While some may not feel excited about this, compared to what we have had the past few years; this is a huge improvement.

The final gameplay addition is the new “Comeback Moment”. We should all know what this means. Every time we see Cena do his same three moves to the 5 Knuckle Shuffle or Randy Orton get on his crazy streak of clotheslines with a powerslam at the end; well all this will be possible in WWE’12. Each WWE Superstar will have their own comeback moment that will activate when their opponent has the upper hand during the entire match. Once it begins, a mini-game will commence where both you and your opponent will be put into button timing situation where one of you have to hit the designated button first. If completed, you will have gained a signature and the ability to get a finisher completely getting you back into the match. If you don’t complete it though and fail to comeback, you will not get that opportunity again. It is a one-time only feature in each match. It was a fun experience but unfortunately I never had to use it as I did fairly well against the CPU and my human opponents, including Matt Black from the WWE Games Community.

The new “Predator” technology really makes a difference in this year’s game and the animations are fantastic. The technology also makes the game look better in terms of graphics and you will start noticing some small things like the ropes and ring bouncing every time a move is executed. One major thing fans will see and like are how the wrestlers sell the moves. If Orton clotheslines Cena, Cena will get back up in a way that shows him selling the move as he is holding his head. This happens with every move and also helps keep the match flowing. There was never a dull moment in WWE’12. Wrestlers will also not stay down for hours on end after a few moves as the damage system has been improved. But it’s mostly the smooth animations that are helping all this be possible.


The momentum meter and finishers have seen a change in WWE’12. The little halo underneath your character is gone and is replaced with a meter. That meter will fill up throughout the match the more you beat down your opponent. Once it starts flashing, you will be able to perform your signature and once completed you will be given a flaming F (for finisher) which will provide you with a more powerful finisher then one you get if the game auto stores it for you. With that said, finisher storing has returned. You can’t manually do it, for now, but it’s worth mentioning as it automatically stores it after a certain amount of time.

Last but not least, presentation. In this E3 build I have been nothing but impressed with most of the aspects of the game but what really stood out to me was the presentation. The camera no longer swings around during the match and keeps a level camera like the one you see on the actual WWE program. The camera also has different angles when doing specific moves that just make it feel like a live show. It will even take close ups of superstars during finishers or even signatures. It shakes during the breaking point submission mini-game and when you try to go up the ramp the camera takes a nice angle and auto-zoom that will make fans happy. It’s really the little things in the presentation that fans will notice after a few matches that give WWE’12 a different look and feel.

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Madden NFL 12

Madden NFL 12 is the newest iteration in the Madden football series.


Human-controlled cameras, custom playbooks, and improved tackle animations are some of the highlights in EA's latest football sim.

The first impressions of NCAA Football 12, a game that's aiming to capture the freewheeling spirit of the college game with team celebrations, a broadcast overhaul, and a number of other visual bells and whistles. With today's NFL Draft, it's only fitting that we move on up to the professional ranks as we talk about this year's Madden game.

Ladies and gentlemen: grass.

Once again, EA was mostly focused on showing us the visual upgrades to this year's football sim, but we've also got a couple of details on new gameplay features. One of these new features is the ability to create custom playbooks and harmonize them with the GameFlow system introduced in last year's game. You outfit a full playbook's worth of formations and plays and then assign each one of them various star ratings based on how well you think each play would work under various situations. So you might assign that four-receiver shotgun set a five-star rating in third-and-long situations, while the same yardage situation might command a one-star rating for an up-the-gut run from your slow-footed fullback. And if you'd prefer to find more of a middle ground between custom playbooks and just use the default GameFlow system, you can now choose a style of GameFlow, such as run-heavy and pass-heavy.

Madden is also using the new tackle animation system we talked about in last week's NCAA Football story. EA's aim with this system is to make tackles and collisions look more natural. In previous years, there were only so many points around a player in which another player could approach them for a hit, which often resulted in players magically floating to that invisible entry point to begin the tackle animation. This year, EA claims it has reworked how the collisions and tackles can be triggered so that you don't get that artificial "snapping into position" look with players. We got to see the system in motion, though without the benefit of a side-by-side comparison, it was hard to tell how drastic the difference is. We will say that the new tackles do look good, but there's still a bit of a way to go until EA gets to the point of Backbreaker-level fluidity in Madden's collision system.

Visually, EA continues to blur the line between virtual football and what you find on television on a Sunday afternoon. There's a certain human element to camera control that this year's game is trying to capture with an elaborate setup of real cameramen and a motion-capture studio. Essentially, what EA has done is recruit the help of some cameramen from NFL Films and rig their gear with a small screen showing in-game footage to effectively place these guys on a virtual field. The myriad motion-capture cameras surrounding these cameramen can tell where they are relative to the in-game players, and what you get is the real effect of a camera operator running around the field, sweeping around, trying to get that perfect shot as players celebrate a play or mill around the scene of a tackle. It's a really cool system, and we're interested in seeing how it pans out. As long as it doesn't wind up feeling like an overdone shaky-cam effect, this new feature could be a great addition.

Also new this year: mascots!

A number of other visual additions and tweaks litter this year's version of Madden. These include stadium exterior shots preceding a game, new broadcast cameras that mimic the unique camera placement of every stadium in the league, 3D grass, and enhanced uniform degradation. Those certainly sound interesting, but the big question is what EA is adding in terms of gameplay features and modes to keep players' interest over the long haul. Hopefully EA has something big in store as we get closer to the release of Madden 12 on August 30.

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