E3 2012: Sony

This is my second article listing games that I saw footage of or heard about from this year’s E3.  As the title implies it is all about Sony, to see Microsoft click here.  It is not about how good or bad Sony's press conference was and this is n’t simply a rundown of its announcements.  It is meant to give anyone who did not follow E3 a list of just about everything planned to make its way to the PS3 within the next year or so, as well as any newly revealed info from the convention.  As for those who did keep up with E3 hopefully it is a convenient list of titles to keep you from forgetting about all of the announcements and to help fill in anything you might have missed.

Beyond: Two Souls (Spring 2013)

-         It will be much more action oriented than Heavy Rain was, but the choices and storytelling are supposed to be on par, if not better, than Heavy Rain

-         The game stars Ellen Page who did all the voice acting, motion capture and facial modeling for the lead character

-         The story follows Jodie and the mysterious presence around her called Ivan over a 15 year period

The Last of Us

-         There is smart enough AI in the enemies to know the sound of a gun that is out of bullets and on your partner’s part to help you out my distracting bad guys if you need it

-         This is demonstrated by a specific scene in the press conference footage that was completely dynamic despite feeling scripted due to how seamlessly it all played out

-         Health bars are back, plus we finally have a game where you take the ammo out of a gun in order to acquire it

-         The game is brutal, a serious departure from the tone of Uncharted

God of War: Ascension (March 12, 2013)

-         Takes place 10 years before God of War 1, which is about 6 months to a year after Kratos kills his family

-         Puzzles around different sections of rumble and assembled environments that you get to influence, also has a combat use

-         Ability to control time and change the environments in order to solve puzzles, this will also have a use in combat

-         Enhanced climbing mechanics

Sound Shapes

-         Cross-play to download your custom levels on both PS3 & PS Vita, however you can’t download other player’s levels

-         1 price for both versions, no word on what that price will be

Soul Sacrifice (Spring 2013)

-         It’s an Action RPG for the Vita

-         To increase in power you must give up something whether that be items or life or parts of your body

Little Big Planet: Vita (2012)

Unfinished Swan

-         Will be available for both the PS3 & the Vita

Sports Champion 2 (Fall 2012) – Only with the PS Move

PlayStation All-Stars

-         Can only score points by hitting someone with a finisher that you build up over the match which instantly kills them

-         Your progress towards your finisher doesn’t get reset when someone kills you

-         Features cross-play and cross saves with the Vita, so you can battle people on Vita’s while on your PS3 and then save your game, transfer it to the Vita and play on the go

-         Newly revealed characters are Big Daddy & Nathan Drake

Little Big Planet 2

-         DLC is coming to allow you to play the game using your Vita as a controller

Dyad - PSN

Papo & Yo - PSN

PlayStation Plus

-         12 new free games this month for members including: inFamous 2, Little Big Planet 2 & Saints Row 2

-         Gave the audience a year free

PlayStation Vita

-         60 new titles for Vita in 2012, comprised of downloadable and retail titles

-         PS1 classics like Tomb Raider & Final Fantasy are coming to Vita this summer

-         New services include YouTube, Hulu Plus and Crackle

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

-         PS3 & Vita cross saves

Ni No Kuni

-         Cell shaded JRPG

-         You can move in real time while in combat, but must select attacks in menus

-         Can see the enemies while exploring (so no random battles) and if they are lower level they might actually run away rather than throw themselves at you pointlessly

Escape Plan - The Asylum – (June 12, 2012)

-         New downloadable add on for the Vita exclusive

BulletRun

-         Free-to-play FPS exclusive to PS3

Dust514

-         Free-to-play FPS that is tied directly into the world and economy of EVE Online

-         24v24 matches

Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified (Holiday 2012)
Persona 4: Golden
- Vita port of Persona 4 from the PS2

Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation

-         First Assassin’s Creed with a female protagonist

-         Will be bundled with the first Crystal White Vita & a 4GB Memory Card

Wonderbook (Fall 2012)

-         Uses a physical book and augmented reality with the PS Eye

-         The first game will be called Book of Spells

o   Written by J.K. Rowling and takes place in the Happy Potter universe

o   Cast spells with the Move

o   Seems fun for kids, but doesn’t seem to have anything meant to entice seasoned gamers

PlayStation Mobile

-         The new name for PlayStation Suite

-         Bringing PlayStation Certified games to smart phones and tablets

-         Now partnered with HTC so you can get these games on their phones as well as Sony’s

Assassin’s Creed 3

-         Will be bundled with PS3 and exclusive DLC on day 1

-         Now introducing naval combat where you captain a ship, controlling your direction and when the canons fire

o    The camera doesn’t pull back and try to add in a strategy game, but rather remains on Connor and makes the battles more intense and personal

-         It will rain, think about it, it has never been in a previous Assassin’s Creed game

-         There are summer and winter versions of all levels

-         The combat is ridiculously fluid with between 4000-5000 new animations

-         You can now take corner-cover in order to wait for someone as they make their rounds

-         Duel wield weapons

-         Over a dozen multiplayer modes including new ones like Domination, where you capture and hold points on the map

FarCry 3

-         Exclusive DLC on PS3

-         Has a cover system like Killzone 3

-         Contains a separate 4-player co-op campaign

-         Includes a map editor

-         Obviously includes competitive multiplayer

-         You lead an army after having sex with a woman from their tribe in front of them, need I say more?

Splinter Cell Black List

-         Will contain co-op missions similar to those in Conviction

-         Spys vs. Mercenaries from Double Agent will return

Madden 13

-         Infinity engine changes tackle physics and allows players to play through tackles as opposed to having control lost as soon as the tackle occurs

-         In depth career mode where you create and level up your player

Fifa 13

-         Fifa 12 exp carries over into the new game, allows you to unlock items

-         iPad app for Football Club

Tomb Raider

-         Great use of interactable environments

-         There is XP earned throughout the game but no skill trees, abilities or leveling up was shown yet

Resident Evil 6 (October 2, 2012)

-         The game takes place a few years after RE5

-         Contains full drop-in, drop-out co-op

-         Don’t have to hop back to the beginning in order to load someone in, they just take control of your AI partner at the next checkpoint

-         Mercenaries is coming back and will be unlocked from the beginning for the first time

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD - PSN

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

-         Adding what is called Strike Force Missions to the single player campaign

o   Can take on missions and the objectives within them in whatever order you chose

o   Can hop between different soldiers in the squad as well as drones and some sort of machine hovering over the area allowing you to see everything.

o   Failure in these missions affect the geopolitical environment in the main story

-         There will be multiple story arcs running through the game due to these new missions

Transformers Fall of Cybertron (August 28, 2012)

-         As Optimus you will be able to control a city sized Transformer called Metroplex in certain missions

-         You can create your own Transformers for multiplayer

Injustice: Gods Among Us

-         There will be DLC characters made available after its release

Dishonored (October 9 NA, October 12 EU)

-         You can chose how to play the game from sneaking through without killing anyone or going in and killing everyone

-         You can learn a number of abilities including possessing animals/people, teleportation, seeing through walls, double jumping and many more

-         Different end games and missions depending on your choices throughout the game

Defiance (April 2013)

-         Special Events indicated by the weather in order to alert players and unite them against giant monsters

-         While it is a MMO Shooter on multiple platforms there will be no cross-platform play

-         The game is tied into a TV show that will launch at the same time

o   The lead in the show starts as a character in the game that then leaves

o   The show will air on SyFy

-         They have been working on the game and show for 4 years

-         The show is set in St. Louis during the same time as the game, which is set in San Fransico

Borderlands 2 (September 18, 2012)

-         New Commander class, which is an upgraded version of the Solider class from the first game

-         17,750,000 guns in Borderlands, Borderlands 2 is set to top that

-         5th character, called the Mechromancer, will be downloadable, but is free if you pre-order the game

Just Dance 4

NBA 2K13

-         If you pre-order it then you get the All-Star Weekend pack free, which includes the dunk-contest, 3-point contest, rising star challenge and last year’s all-star game

-         Surprising since that used to be included in every basketball game

Watch Dogs

-         You are connected to a city wide network giving you access to info on everyone and ways to hack into and interact with your environment.

-         Has a slow-mo bullet time esque ability

Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (November 18, 2012)

Hitman: Absolution (November 20, 2012)

-         Agent 47 kills his handler Diana and the agency turns against him, so now he is a wanted man

-         Purely single player game, no multiplayer will be added to the series

Skylanders: Giants

-         Compatible with the old characters and their stats

-         $74.99

Lollipop Chainsaw (June 12, 2012)

-         Suda 51’s latest game

-         Michael Rosenbaum plays, the lead character, Juliet’s boyfriend’s head, which she carries around with her strapped to her waist

Sonic & All-Star Racing Transformed (Fall 2012)

-         Cars turn into a boat or plane when launched into the air or go into the water

Aliens Colonial Marines (February 2013)

-         Xenomorph vs. Human multiplayer

o   Xenomorphs are played in 3rd person

-         Story is the canon sequel to the Alien trilogy

XCom: Enemy Unknown (October 9, 2012)

-         Have an underground base that gets built up throughout the game

-         Can capture live enemies or bring in their corpses for experiments

-         Can level up soldiers that you take with you in each level and can give them active and passive abilities

Need for Speed Most Wanted (October 30, 2012)

-         Open World

-         Over 60 cars

-         Everything you do in the game adds to your overall score, which gets put against your friends as you all compete to become the “most wanted”

Lego: Lord of the Rings

Sleeping Dogs (August 14 NA, August 17 EU)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard (2012)

-         Vampire and Werewolf perk trees

-         10-20 hours of new content

-         Adding crossbows, Dragon Bone weapons, mounted combat, and a shout that lets you rip the souls out of humans and turn them into your undead minions

Pro Evolution Soccer 2013

Dead Space 3 (February 2013)

-         2 player drop-in, drop-out co-op in the main campaign, however you can play the campaign in single player and then there will be no AI partner or secondary character whatsoever

o   Cutscenes, dialogue and even some side quests are changed because Carver (Player 2’s character) is either there or not depending on whether you choose to go through the campaign by yourself or with backup

-         In addition to the Necromorphs you will also be taking on humans

Spec Ops: The Line (June 26, 2012)

-         Separate co-op missions that show some back story for characters in the main campaign

Medal of Honor: Warfighter (October 23, 2012)

-         The multiplayer uses the buddy spawning system like Halo: Reach’s Invasion & BTB gametypes to encourage teamwork

-         Every mission comes from a real life event or takes place in a real life hotspot

o   Is that realistic or does it seem a little insensitive/inappropriate to anyone else?

-         Multiplayer lets you play as 12 different types of soldiers from 10 different countries

-         Uses Battlefield 3’s Frostbite 2 engine

Bellator: MMA Onslaught - PSN

Crysis 3 (February 2013)

-         The game takes place 20 years after Crysis 2

Bandfuse: Rock Legends

WWE 13 (October 30, 2012)

-         Over 70 characters

-         Large focus on the Attitude era

Lost Planet 3 (Early 2013)

Darksiders 2 (August 14, 2012)

-         The game will feature more traversing than the first game because Death is a faster and more athletic character than War

-         You start the game with your horse rather than having to build to it like in the first game

DMC (January 15, 2013)

-         Limbo is where the Demon’s drag Dante when they want to fight him

-         In this series Dante is no longer half human half demon, now he is half demon half angel

F1 2012 (September 2012)

-         Contains 20 different circuits

007 Legends

-         In celebration of the franchise’s 50^th anniversary

-         Contains 5 missions based on classic films

-         A 6^th mission will be based on Skyfall and will be released as free DLC

Hawken

-         Free to play indie mech combat game

Dead or Alive 5 (September 25, 2012)

Battlefield 3 Premium

-         Includes in-game items, exclusive events, 10 new vehicles, 20 new weapons, game mods and more

-         Early access (2 weeks) to 4 new map packs as well as access to the one that is already out if you don’t own it

o   Close Quarters – June (features close quarters combat meaning no vehicles)

o   Armored Kill – September (all-out vehicle warfare)

§  Contains 4 huge maps including the largest in any Battlefield game

o   Aftermath – December (survival themed)

o   End Game – March 2013 (debut of motorcycles)

-         Costs $49.99

Quantum Conundrum (Summer 2012)

-         Swap between fluffy, reverse gravity, regular and slow-mo dimension in order to solve puzzles

-         From the creator of Portal

Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (June 19 NA, June 22 EU)

-         Features the Justice League

-         Open Gotham City to explore

Metro: Last Light (Early 2013)

-         Worked with the author of the novel that the first game is based on in order to craft a sequel

-         They are dedicated to the single player but they will be adding a multiplayer mode

The Amazing Spider-Man

-         The game picks up after the movie rather than trying to stretch the movie’s story across a full length game

-         The web swinging looks pretty awesome and gives a great since of speed

-         Hidden comic pages throughout the city to find so you can unlock full comic books in the game

-       This year is Spidey’s 50^th anniversary and in the Stan Lee pre-order bonus you can find a manuscript for something special coming soon to honor it, the other pre-order bonus (depending on your retailer) is a Rhino challenge set where you wreck the town for points

The Cave (Early 2013) - PSN

Lord of the Rings: Guardians of Middle-earth

Star Trek

NHL 13

NBA 13

NCAA Football 13

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (September 11 NA, September 13 JP, September 14 EU)

-         If you pre-order then you will receive early access to a special level that features Snoop Dogg

-         The game will also feature an original song by Snoop Dogg called “Knock ‘em Down” 

Persona 4 Arena (July 26 JP, August 7 NA, August 31 EU) 
- Fighting game based off of the Shin Megami Tensei series

If I missed anything feel free to add to this list by posting in the comments below or just let me know what you think of this line up of offerings for Sony and their PS3 & Vita.

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