The Button Presser

6/9/14 11:00PM |

If you're like me, you one day hope to attend E3, but I'm glad that I'll be able to check out all of the latest from the show, right from home thanks to all of the various gaming outlets that attend and provide livestreams for everyone to watch. Here's my overview of the big press conferences today, so read and enjoy! 


Games. Games. Games. 

That's what Microsoft focused on this year at E3 during their press conference, just as they did last year. Games that we already knew about or titles rumored to be coming were for Xbox One got were showcased including Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Sunset Overdrive, The Witcher 3, and Fable Legends.

There were also some nice surprises as well. New DLC was announced for Dead Rising 3 which features 4-player co-op modes with past protagonists from the series including like Chuck Greene and Frank West. 

The Halo Master Chief collection which sounded like a crazy rumor is actually true, and will feature Halo 1-4 with a seamless menu to navigate and will allow players to create a custom playlist of missions across those four games to play back to back.  

Pre-ordering that collection comes with a beta token for Halo 5, which will offer players a chance to check out the game's multiplayer later this year.

Ubisoft was also at the Microsoft conference and showed off Assassin's Creed Unity, an all new AC game with 4-player co-op. It looked incredible and appears to take advantage of Microsoft's new hardware. Their other big game, the Division, was also demoed and continues to impress. 


Microsoft did a great job of showing games that are set to arrive this year, next year, as well as independently developed titles. It was awesome to see Inside, the next game from Playdead, creators of the hit arcade title LIMBO. I'd give Microsoft's conference a solid grade as they displayed many games although I wish there were more new titles shown that would compel more gamers to pick up the console. 




EA started strong with their conference showing a behind the scenes look at development on Star Wars: Battlefront and sneak peeks at Bioware's new projects which includes a Mass Effect title and a new IP. It was a nice tease and I can't wait to learn more. They then went on to give new details on their 2014 sports line-up which includes the new Madden, PGA, and UFC title, all of which look very impressive.

Mirror's Edge was briefly discussed, and is set to contain a story that shows Faith's beginnings as a runner. You can check out a bit more in the video embedded below:


Dragon Age: Inquisition looks great which had some more time on the screen. Sales for that title are sure to be strong when it arrives in a few months. EA finished things out with a demo of Battlefield: Hardline, and announced that a beta for the game would be available today. Be sure to sign-up to check it out on PC and PS4. Both EA and Ubisoft have a ton of content coming for gamers, and 2015 will be the time when the major ones come out and seek to impress us all.



Ubisoft is riding high off the success of Watch Dogs, but they showed at their conference that they still have plenty of games coming to be excited about. Far Cry 4 opened the show and it looks to continue the great pattern of having an interesting villain to battle against as Far Cry 3 did. The game was also showed again at Sony's conference, and is set to arrive later this holiday season for most major platforms.

The Division was also shown a bit more, and looks like it will be a big hit when it arrives some time next year. 


Ubisoft has a lineup of titles that will reach different audiences, including their new fitness games and Just Dance, as well as The Crew and Rainbow Six: Siege, the nice surprise at the end which focused on a possible multiplayer mode scenario.

Overall, it was another great conference with a nice range of titles, some of which will be making its way to various consoles later this year.



Sony had a lot of content packed into their conference. While it was mostly games, the middle segments included hardware and media announcements that slowed down their pace just a bit, but it was fairly informational. PSVita TV is coming to the US for $99 and there's a White PS4 bundle coming for Destiny. 

Sony's plan is to get consumers to pick up a PS4 seems to include great exclusives as well as providing great PlayStation-only content for third-party titles, something that Microsoft does for certain titles as well.


Once again Sony showed great investment with Indie titles and had quite a few to display. This was led by the announcement of a remastered Grimm Fandango and the game that wowed viewers at last year's VGX: No Man's Sky. PlayStation Now was also detailed a bit more, and will have an open beta next month, so every PS4 user can check out titles that are stream-able from the console.

While it was just announced for Xbox One and PC, Grand Theft Auto 5 will be making its way to PS4 this Fall, which Sony was happy to announce first. The game will feature visual enhancements, as well as the ability to transfer GTA Online saves to PS4. Pretty awesome stuff!

The Last of Us: Remastered will be coming next month for PS4, but Naughty Dog closed the show with a brief in-game teaser for Uncharted 4. While very short, it was awesome to see and I can't wait for the full game which will hopefully come out next year.



Great games and announcements were made today at the press conferences, and more will come throughout the week. There's also the Nintendo conference tomorrow, who may have some stuff to show that will blow everyone away. Happy E3 week!


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10/4/13 12:00PM |

Battlefield 4 will be out toward the end of this month, but if you want to get an early look at the game, the beta is now available for everyone to download on consoles and PC. All you'll need to do is download it on the Xbox Game Store, PlayStation Network, and Origin for the PC version. 

There's also a free gold weekend which starts today, so if you're a silver member on Xbox Live, you can still download the beta and play online!


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6/10/13 11:30PM |

If you're like me, you one day hope to attend E3, but I'm glad that I'll be able to check out all of the latest from the show, right from home thanks to all of the various gaming outlets that attend, especially GameTrailers and Spike TV. After watching all of the big press conferences today, here are some quick overviews on each for you to check out:


While there are still issues regarding the online functions of the Xbox One, Microsoft made good on their promise of showing off games for the new console, which was announced to be coming this November for $499. Killer Instinct will return, Halo is coming, and they showed off some pretty impressive gameplay demos of Dead Rising 3, Metal Gear Solid 5, Ryse, and Titanfall. The Xbox 360 will also be getting some new games as well, and there was even a new version of the console, which was announced and made available for purchase today.



They also announced that come November, Microsoft Points will be a thing of the past for Xbox One, which is something most other platforms have been accustomed to. Microsoft also seem to be taking a not from Sony, as they announced that starting next month, Gold Members will receive two downloadable games to keep a month, which will start with Assassin's Creed II and Halo 3. Older games sure, but you can't beat the price. Deadly Premonition fans like myself should be happy that Swery, creator of the cult-hit title, will be at it again with a new game called D4 for Xbox One. Sign-me up for that one!

Another nice nugget of information from the conference is that your subscription to Xbox Live will also carry over, and the price to play online will remain at $60 a year. That's a pretty nice positive.

If Microsoft can allow every game to be played offline, allow for trades and rentals, and make newer games available for free each month, they'll be able to help sway the hardcore gamers that may be considering a PlayStation 4.


EA had a pretty good press conference. NBA Live will look to make it's comeback later this is with Live 14, UFC will be coming next spring, Battlefield 4 showed 64 players on consoles, Star Wars: Battlefront will be a long-awaited return, and there will be a new Mirror's Edge title.



There was also a quick showing of the next Dragon Age title as well, which will apparently take some of the great elements that everyone enjoyed in Skyrim.

No matter which console you choose to purchase, you'll be able to enjoy most of the titles that EA showed off today.


While the big dogs from Ubisoft were shown in a trailer with Watch_Dogs, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Assassin's Creed IV, and Rayman Legends, the company also had a nice variety of new games to show including the racing title Crew, a new MMO title called the Division.



South Park was also shown, but it's appearance at the conference was pretty brief, but it's nice to know that the game should be available for everyone to check out later this year. Red Lynx is also gearing up to bring not one, but two new Trials titles which will allow for interactivity between the games, which is something a lot of games will apparently do for Next-gen.

One good pattern that the conferences seem to be showing is that new IP is very important, and expanding and bring back titles will make fans happy, which Ubisoft has a nice mix of.


Sony is all about games. If this wasn't apparent before, it definitely is now. Whether it's on the Vita, PS3, or the upcoming PlayStation 4, you'll be able to enjoy a wide array of games in the next few years from them.

So Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced, Versus XIII is now Final Fantasy XV, Destiny was actually shown, and the PS4 will support used games and won't require any sort of online verification. Major points to Sony for this.



Gaikai will allow for games to be streamed, when it launches in 2014, which will allow for Vita, PS3 and PS4 to enjoy games granted they have a nice connection.

Indie developers will also get love too, as they will be able to self-publish on the console, allowing creators a chance to have control on their games and earnings, which I assume Sony will get a nice piece of.

All of this, plus the system will launch at $399, so that gamers of all types will have a great reason to consider the PlayStation 4 over the $499 Xbox One.


The Next-gen console war seems to have officially started today, and throughout the week, more awesome games will be shown, detailed, and made available in video form to watch online as the discussions across the internet begins.
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Pretty crazy news, huh? This is what is going to happen: Starting with the next Tiger Wood's game, You will be require to purchase an EA online pass with your games if you want to play online. Those that buy the game brand new will receive a code for the pass, and those who buy used or rent will have to pay $10 if they want to hop online. For EA, this will ensure that a customer who rents or purchases a used game will still have to pay them for online privileges and will give them revenue from used sales. Sony has done something similar when they released Socom for the PSP, although that locked players out of online unless you bought new.

This has probably been the biggest move against used sales, and it will be interesting to see how this method is received.