"They've been asking for bigger squads," DICE producer Aleksander Grondal told Joystiq at E3, referring to the Battlefield community's insistance on larger squad counts. "We believe five is a good figure. It allows for more team-based gameplay, basically. You have more options and you can spawn in more places."
In previous Battlefield games, DICE made a purposeful design decision to limit the number of players per squad. "It was a design choice back then – forgive me, I don't exactly remember why it was chosen four. You know, it feels like light years ago from previous games," Grondal joked, rubbing the tired from E3's first day out of his eyes. "But five is a little better; it gives a bit more flexibility and more interesting choices."
Battlefield 4 launches on October 29 for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell kicked off the conference with a guitar-shredding demonstration of Rocksmith 2014's Session Mode, in which budding guitarists can customize backing music tracks in real-time using voice commands. A trailer for the online PC RPG The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot followed; afterward, Ubisoft revealed that it is accepting signups for a closed beta.
Ubisoft assured that Obsidian Entertainment's RPG South Park: The Stick of Truth is alive and well, narrowing down its release date to Holiday 2013. Ubisoft previously acquired the project from THQ following the troubled publisher's dissolution late last year. Ubisoft Reflections and Ivory Tower's The Crew was up next, showcasing its unique brand of destructive multiplayer racing across a persistent online world. A release is planned next year for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC platforms.
"Aw, fuck."
Those are the first words that Vince, one of the five characters highlighted in 400 Days, says. He spits the phrase into a dark alley as he searches for a spot to stash his gun, police sirens blaring from down the street. The player gets to decide where Vince throws the pistol – the garbage, his pants, the roof – but it doesn't appear to affect where he ends up: chained to the floor of a prison bus, with a heartbroken statutory rapist in front of him and a white-collar, former millionaire behind, all latched on the same line.
Bethesda also released some more screenshots for both games, which we've placed in the galleries below.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut will launch on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC/Mac later this year, Square Enix announced in a press release. The version was initially announced for Wii U in March, and Eidos Montreal said the Director's Cut improvements were not planned for other platforms as of April.
The touchscreen features seen in the Director's Cut version developed for the Wii U version will translate to Microsoft's SmartGlass app and the PlayStation Vita.
Quantum Break continues Remedy's trend of using other forms of media – in its worlds and outside of them – to flesh out the universe of its games. Max Payne's story was told in pages ripped out of a gritty noir comic, Alan Wake brought the world to life in a short, live-action miniseries; Quantum Break goes further, Lake said.
"Quantum Break is a lot more than a 'AAA' game, there is a top-of-the-line TV show that ships with the game. Both the game and the show are meant to be consumed together," Lake explained, calling the decision to produce an entire series "a logical leap forward" from its previous universe-building efforts.
Expanding on the news, Remedy Entertainment's Oskari Hakkinen clarified that the release of Quantum Break will include the series, though neither Remedy or Microsoft would explain if the show would be included on the same disc as the game.
That bundle is a good deal for fans of continuity – the decisions players made in the first season of The Walking Dead will show up in 400 Days, and the choices in 400 Days will impact season two, Telltale marketing man Richard Iggo said at E3. Players can start 400 Days without having played any of season one, but Iggo warned against it for those who want the full effect.
The DLC features five new characters in five separate stories, with a truck stop as their connective tissue. The truck stop is near events in season one of The Walking Dead, making it easy, geographically at least, to include previous player choices in 400 Days and beyond.
"Who knows, some of the characters that you meet might end up in season two," Iggo teased.
EA hit the ground running with a trailer for Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, a third-person action game in which players control squadrons of zombie-destroying plant life. Afterward, PopCap's John Vechey took the stage to announce Peggle 2, which is expected to reignite many long-forgotten addictions when it launches later this year.
Electronic Arts then offered a glimpse at a new Star Wars Battlefront game developed by DICE, capitalizing on its recent exclusivity deal with franchise owner Disney. Dragon Age: Inquisition was next up, as developer BioWare showed off a new trailer and announced the game's release had been pushed back into next year, with versions planned for Xbox One, PS4, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Initial reports indicated long-time Batman voice actor Conroy wasn't in Origins. He then announced at the recent Dallas Comic Con that he'd been working on "the next Arkham" game. Shortly after, Craig Smith was officially unveiled as Origins' younger Batman, leading to speculation Conroy might be involved in some kind of retrospective role.
However, it now emerges Conroy was apparently talking about another Arkham game in development, perhaps at series dev Rocksteady Studios - Warner Bros. Montreal is the studio behind Origins.
That would seem to be backed up by Spong's report from last month, which noted a Twitter account ascribed to Conroy tweeted "Confusion in Dallas! I am in new ARKHAM GAME coming soon, NOT ARKHAM ORIGINS coming this fall." The tweet was deleted shortly after being posted - we're not sure if the world's greatest detective is needed for this one.
"We're using Microsoft's cloud compute initiative to run all our servers for it, so it's all running on dedicated servers," Owens said. "We'll spin up and spin down servers as necessary, and it'll do all the AI hosting and physics calculations and all matchmaking and all of that good stuff. It's all dedicated servers, all the time." Owens also confirmed the PC version would feature dedicated servers.
In the meantime, some good news: in keeping with the series' tradition of cross-platform compatibility, the next-gen versions of Skylanders: Swap Force will use the same figurines as the current-gen titles, due to release for 3DS, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U October 13 in the United States.
The beta will likely include four maps and a majority of the full game's 60 total tanks at first, Thorley said.
World of Tanks Xbox 360 Edition won't feature cross-play between PC and console. It supports online multiplayer for up to 30 players – 15 vs. 15 – with no single-player or local multiplayer content at launch. Wargaming may add single-player tutorials or other comparable content in the future.
It's free-to-play for Xbox Live Gold members, and all other Live users will get a free seven-day trial. The monetization strategy on XBLA will be slightly different than its PC predecessor, though Thorley said he couldn't go into detail about specific packages.
"I think you're going to find some similarities," Thorley said. "There are areas that may be slightly different."
The major differences between the PC and Xbox 360 versions of World of Tanks will be the control scheme – surprise, the console edition uses a controller – and some user interface tweaks to better suit a couch perspective.
Minutes before Microsoft's conference began, Rare's Danny Isaac revealed Kinect Sports Rivals, an Xbox One launch title that uses the console's improved Kinect sensor for a new collection of minigames. Microsoft began its briefing with a look at Konami's Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. Despite initial speculation as to whether it was a platform exclusive, it was later confirmed that The Phantom Pain is still planned for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.
Microsoft then dedicated a few minutes to the Xbox 360 before moving on to the Xbox One. A new Xbox 360 hardware model was announced, along with news that Xbox Live Gold members would receive two free games per month up until the release of the Xbox One. Gold members can now grab Fable III free of charge, and Halo 3 and Assassin's Creed II will be available for free starting July 1.
The company additionally revealed that a free-to-play Xbox 360 version of World of Tanks is in the works. The console's Summer of Arcade lineup was later detailed, and is set to launch in August.
Magic 2014 is priced at $10, which falls in line with every other entry in the series. A special edition, which includes the game, soundtrack, five desktop wallpapers, a "Return to Ravnica" eBook and ten foil conversions, is also listed on the Steam page. Magic 2014: Duels of the Planeswalkers will launch on PC, Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, iOS and Android this summer – this marks the first time the series will be available on Android.
[Thanks, Mitch]
Microsoft's E3 press conference yesterday was full of gigantic new titles like Titanfall, Ryze, and Metal Gear Solid 5, but in among the blockbusters, there was one little announce that stood out in a big way. Below is the latest game from Capybara Games, the indie Canadian studio behind Critter Crunch and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes, who most recently won all the awards with the beautiful iOS title Sword and Sworcery EP. Below is about as far from an early next-generation console title as you'd imagine: Instead of bombastic, flashy, and loud, it's quiet, subtle, and slightly menacing.
"You are small," Capy co-founder Nathan Vella says while smoking a cigarette outside a Microsoft E3 showcase last evening. "Death is at every turn if you are not smart about it." Below is "a roguelike like," he says, focusing on sending the player through a series of randomized, one-screen dungeons, with a sword, shield, and some other not-yet-revealed tools and weapons.