E3 2014 summary

Oh, hell yes, E3 2014 was a big one, so here’s our summary of the proceedings, starting with the best bits of day 1 and we’ll be updating with everything from day too as it happens. Without further ado, here’s what went down in LA last year, and you can find out more about the next installment with our E3 2015 preview.

Microsoft press conference summary:

• Microsoft kicked things off with a massive preview of Call Of Duty: Advance Warfare, which brings future tech to the series in a big way. Characters have a jump boost ability, similar to Titanfall, and there’s a whole lot of futuristic stiff in the game, but first impression is that it lacks a little of the impact that The Division and Battlefield Hardline have.
• Next up we had an announcement that the complete Nurbergring would be added immediately for free to Forza 5.
• This was followed up by a look at the insanely impressive Forza Horizon 2, which brings open-world driving to the Xbox one. The biggest car announced was the Lamborghini Huracán, and in terms of game features, you’ll have dynamic weather, 1080p, free play driving across the United States, Drivatars and instant online play. It’s already scheduled for release on the 30th September 2014.
• Killer Instinct Season 2 was confirmed.
• Evolve had a pretty cool gameplay video that has started to make us believe in the potential of the title a little more.
• There was a massive feature on the amazing looking, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, which we previewed not long back. We now know that it’s exclusive to next gen and PC, that the main character is called Arno Victor Dorian, you can form a brotherhood with 4 player co-op play and that it looks awesome.
• Bioware’s Dragon Age: Inquisition featured heavily too, but if we’re honest we’re finding it hard to get behind the game still.
• The same can be said for Sunset Overdrive, which followed on from Inquisition, but in all fairness the gameplay did look like it could be kind of fun.
• There was a little Capcom Dead Rising 3 DLC announced that seemed a bit meh.
• Fable Legends had an extended gameplay demo that wasn’t all that impressive.
• Project Spark still looks like it could be very interesting, especially with the mini presence of Rare’s Conker to add a little fun times into the mix.
• Halo: Guardians is still in tease phase and while a little more was added, which looks very exciting, it’ll be cool to get to see some gameplay sooner rather than later.
• A big announcement from the guys at Microsoft is that they’ve been working on bundling up all previous Halo games into one for an exclusive Xbox ONE release on November 11th 2014 called Halo: The Master Chief Collection. There will be more than 100 multiplayer maps in glorious 1080p, delivered through dedicated servers. It’ll also come booted with the Halo Nightfall series.
• One of the best reveals of the Microsoft press conference was the cinematic trailer for Rise Of The Tomb Raider as the guys at Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix combine once again for a sequel to Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition.
• Witcher 3 got a big gameplay demo and while it looked cool in parts, we were a little disappointed with the sections in which Geralt is a bit too far away from the camera in what looks like too much of a top down approach to 3rd person perspective gaming.
• We’re not really sure what Phantom Dust was if we’re honest.
• However, Tom Clacy’s The Division had some badass gameplay demo action too and from what we’ve seen, we still can’t wait to get our hands on the game. There’s just something that grabs you and makes you buy into its potential in terms of the style and detail that is brought together for it.
• Scalebound looks set to bring more dragon action to the ONE.
• And Microsoft finished off with a preview of Crackdown, which looks like its got potential with its unique style.

EA press conference summary:

• EA started things out with a feature on Star Wars Battlefront that focused on the development efforts that are going into making the game. While we get a few tiny sniffs of visuals, it’s still to little to say for sure how its going to play out, but anticipation still runs high.
• Dragon Age Inquisition got another dose of video action. It was a mixed bag though with some scenes looking amazing and other looking a bit too dated in terms of graphics.
• We’re not big fans of the series, but The Sims 4, had a sizable mention, including all of emotions, neighbourhoods, and ability to play with life that it entails. It’s due out on the Sept 2nd 2014.
• UFC was probably one of the big disappointments for us. Having Bruce Lee as a part of the game was initially an exciting prospect, but the graphics and fight engine could be better, so we’re pretty much out on this one. It was released on June 17th 2014.
• We also had a first look at NHL15 with its beautiful cut scenes, but there was no actual action on display, so again we’ll have to wait and see.
• They had big announcement of  a Criterion Games title that’s in early development. it apparently goes beyond cars, including helicopters, wing suits, boats, parachutes, planes and jet skis.
• EASports also expanded on PGA Tour, confirming that it was using Frostbite 3 and that there would be no load time between holes. There’s are some crazy fantasy courses, which they’re calling golf without limits, giving it everything from battle scenes to beautiful greens.
• Madden NFL 15 brings defence updates to give you more control and some awesome cut scene cinematography to build the emotion of the game.
• Dawngate was another meh for us, as a MOBA that just doesn’t feel like it’s going to hit the mark.
• Mirrors Edge continues to look cool and Dice appear to have done a very good job at making Faith move as slick as possible.
• We’re still not impressed with FIFA 15.
• EA closed their conference on some very hard hitting Battlefield Hardline gameplay action, bringing a very real cops and criminals, good guys vs bad guys style to the Battlefield shoot-em-up. It’s got great graphics and has what looks like an immersive online experience with a mission style, and a taser!! The crane crashing down the side of the bulding during the gameplay looked badass.

Ubisoft press conference summary:

• Ubisoft began its press conference with a cinematic intro to Far Cry 4, setting up the villain as a completely evil git right from the very beginning.
• Just Dance something or other had a little feature, plus there was a first look at Just Dance Now, which lets a huge number of people to have a dance off with their mobile phone.
• There was even more love for The Division with a slightly disturbing cinematic intro.
• The Crew looks and sounds badass.
• Assassin’s Creed: Unity confirms Ubisoft’s sway over cutting edge gaming and the graphics are incredibly real, but there were a few glitches during the gameplay demo that we’re hoping they sort out before the game is released in November. The parkour looks like the best yet for traversing buildings and there’s an good update to the sneak function of the game.
• They also announced a fitness game called Shape Up that could be cool.
• Valiant Heart was hard to get a real feel for, so we’re going to skip it for now.
• However, they saved a surprise to the end with a demo of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6. It’s been six years since last Rainbow 6 title and this one looks like it could work out well, with a team-based approach to online shooter action.

Sony press conference summary:

• Sony opted to go big on Destiny with their press conference at E3 2014. They showed a new storyline trailer and announced the ability to play a beta version of the game first on Playstation on the July 17th, plus PS4 gaming are exclusively eligible for a  first look alpha version from this Thursday (12/06/14). They also had some bold claims about the game being better on Playstation thanks to exclusive in-game content for PS4.
• This was added to by the reveal of a white PS4 with a Destiny bundle.
• The Order 1886 looks like it could be pretty disturbing.
• The arty Entwined was announced with a PS4 downloadable version available now for £9.99, coming later to PS3 and Vita.
• inFamous: Second Son DLC was revealed as inFamous: First Light, available in August 2014.
• Little Big Planet 3 was revealed for PS4 featuring the addition of new character Oddsock, Toggle and Swoop, along with multiplay co-op and the ability to play all of the 8.7 million user generated levels that have ever been created for the Little Big Planet series.
• Bloodborne, directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, from Software has been confirmed for 2015.
• There was the first look at gameplay for Far Cry 4 and the announcement that the land that you find yourself in is called Kyrat. The graphics look amazing, especially the lighting, colour and settings. We loved the cool tuck tuck takeover, 2 player co-op, gyrocopter action and elephants madness. It was also confirmed that friends can join you even if they don’t have the game only on PlayStation.
• Dead Island 2 was teased with some cinematic madness, which we’re pretty sure included a character voiced by Jack Black.
• Battlefield: Hardline had more visuals that still look class.
• Magicka 2 was previewed by Paradox.
• There was some very exciting news about Grim Fandango getting remastered exclusively for the PS4 and PS Vita.
• There was a brief indie shout out for their new Devolver partnership.
• Let It Die looked a bit weak.
• Abzu looks a bit poo, but could get better.
• No Man’s Sky by the Hello Games indie studio, was a bit of a revalation of a sci-fi title that sees every player start on a different planet in a massive, infinite universe.
• Project Morphius had a fleeting glance.
• Twitch ustream will let you send game footage directly to your
• PSNow on PS Vita will unlock a huge back catalogue of game, including PS3 games we think.
• PlayStation TV will let you play PS4 from another TV in the same house and will cost $99.
• Mortal Kombat X was revealed and looks impressive.
• Ratchet and Clank will be coming to PS4 in early 2015, along with a movie to boot.
• The Last Of Us Remastered showed off a bit more of the brilliance of the title. It’s still the most exciting game planned for PS4 in our opinion and will be released on the 29th July 2014.
• The new Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain cinematic trailer looked impressive, but showed no gameplay.
• Grand Theft Auto 5 will be coming to PS4 in autumn 2014 and you’ll be able to transfer progress to PS4 from PS3 and Xbox 360.
• The Batman: Arkham Knight gameplay video looked very cool with Batman gliding around Gotham and driving the bat mobile. It’s got some awesome heatseeking missiles and there will be some exclusive Scarecrow nightmare missions for PlayStation owners.
• Last up on the bill was Sony’s surprise entry of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, which they previewed with a cinematic trailer. Its scheduled for 2015.

Nintendo press conference summary:

• Super Smash Bros was revealed to include the option of fighting with your Mii with their own special moves (36 options). We love it, especially the ability to customise your Mii as either a brawler, sword fighter or gunner. It’s touted as being able to fight with anyone with Ice T and Elijah Wood as the cool examples they had. Princess Palentino was also confirmed as a playable character.
• Amiibo is a toys to life kind of deal similar to Disney Infinity. Your character’s data is transported into compatible games by touching the figure on the Wii U gamepad. it’ll be supported on Super Smash Brother first, and is planned to come to Mario Kart 8 later on down the line, plus more titles soon.
• Yoshi’s Woolly World looks like a cute platformer with 2 player co-op. It’ll be released on Wii U in 2015.
• Captain Toad Treasure Tracker is a cute 3D platformer featuring Toad and some impressive looking bosses.
• The Legend of Zelda Wii U title was finally revealed as an open world style adventure set for 2015 release. It looks good, but it’s not quite the tease of the initial Wii U announcement that we saw a few years ago, so we’re left feeling a little disappointed to be honest.
• There’s a new Pokemon coming to 3DS.
• Bayonetta looks mental.
• Hyrule Warriors was announced as a battle game with massive bosses and 2 player coop featuring Link, Princess Zelda, Midna and Imp.
• Kirby and the Rainbow Curse is another cute 2D platformer.
• Splatoon is an 8 player online battle, that sees you firing paint on a variety of maps to claim possession for your team. It looks like it could be fun, especially the paint bazookas and bombs.

Overall summary:

If we had to summarise the entirety of the 2014 E3 press conferences in one sentence we’d have to say that Sony may have won it this time around, that the most exciting game featured has got to be The Division and that Nintendo have slightly disappointed with the magically disappearing sneak peak Legend of Zelda Wii U game of yesteryear.

Share our E3 2014 summary with: