The Pixelbot Podcast – E3 2014 Edition

We may not have gone to E3 this week, but we can certainly talk about it! We discuss many of the new video game announcements from the show and share what games we are most excited for. Enter the new generation of gaming!

Pixelbot E3 Coverage: Sony

Hi there! Well, it’s Sony’s turn to end this year’s E3 press conference. What will they announce? What sorts of surprises do they have up their sleeves? Will they be able to throw down against Microsoft’s game-only press conference. Let’s find out, shall we?

Sony kicked off the press conference with a Destiny story trailer. We get a little bit more background of the plot for Destiny with a few glimpses of gameplay. As if it wasn’t exciting enough, Sony announced an exclusive white PS4 Destiny bundle.

Next, we got some more gameplay footage of The Order: 1886. This time, we get to see one of the creatures you’ll be facing. Up till now, gameplay footage has primarily featured human enemies, so it’s nice to actually see one of the creatures you’ll be up against. I’m glad they showed off the supernatural horror aspect of the game here!

Following The Order, we get a preview of an indie game called Entwined. It’s a love story between a polygonal stork and fish and has a very Child of Eden style of gameplay. The surprising part: it’s out right now.

Sucker Punch games revealed a brand new stand-alone DLC for Infamous: Second Son called Infamous: First Light that features the character, Fetch. They announce that you do NOT need Second Son to play the DLC.

After First Light comes one of the first blinding surprises (pun clearly intended) of Sony’s conference: Little Big Planet 3 for PS4. We’re introduced to three new characters: Oddsock (a four-legged character who can move quickly and wall jump), Toggle (the largest character of the bunch who can move heavy objects and also shrink himself) and Swoop (a bird character who can fly and pick up other characters as well).

After the happy, colorful world of Little Big Planet 3, we transition to, what has to be, my most anticipated title: Bloodborne. Developed by Fromsoftware, the guys behind Dark Souls, we get a Victorian horror-style cinematic trailer that ups the creepiness, violence and disparity up to 11. It’s crazy how this trailer shows RIGHT after Little Big Planet, like you went from eating gummy bears right to tearing the flesh off a rotting animal.

Speaking of animals, Ubisoft shows us what an angry elephant can do to a person in the gameplay footage for Far Cry 4. During the gameplay we get a taste of the airy, mountainous views of the Himalayas (that remind me of some of the areas of Tomb Raider), single player combat, a fortress takeover with the help of a second player as well as, you guessed it, a ticked off elephant. To add the proverbial cherry on top, Ubisoft announced that if your friends want to join you in co-op, they don’t need to own Far Cry 4. Guess it won’t be so lonely at the top.

Next up, we get a cinematic trailer reveal for Dead Island 2 that features what appears to be the stereotypical Venice beach, only to be populated with zombies.

While we’re on the subject of zombies, the Clickers from The Last of Us will be featured in the PS4 edition of Diablo III!

Afterwards, we get a preview of the chaotic gameplay from the new Battlefield: Hardline. It’s cops vs. robbers, with 100x more destruction. Don’t know how the city is going to pay for all the damages, but when you’re living in LA, high taxes don’t surprise you. Also, it’s revealed that the open beta is available to download for PS4 users.

We get a few brief announcements for Disney Infinity 2.0 as well as a new Magicka trailer that features an unemployed wizard and his humorous, job-less antics. It may or may not feature accidentally exploding a cat.

Just like the exploding cat, our minds exploded when Sony announced that Double Fine would be working on a remastered version of the much beloved adventure game Grim Fandango. I squealed in delight over this news, to

We changed gears into the indie gaming world with announcements from Devolver Digital such as Broforce, Not a Hero, Hotline Miami: Wrong Number and Titan Souls coming to Vita and PS4.

Suda51, the studio behind stylistic oddities such as Killer is Dead and Lollipop Chainsaw, reveal their newest title Let It Die. And yes, it’s pretty violent. Reminds me of Manhunt.

While we’re talking about game studios with numbers in their names, 505 Games along with Giant Squid announced a new game Abzu, a PS4 exclusive game. It’s from the makers of Journey and looks to be the inverse of Journey: instead of desert sand, we get tropical underwater exploration. And also, the fantastic Austin Wintory is back to compose the soundtrack.

Exploration is the keyword with the beautiful gameplay trailer for the much-anticipated, procedurally generated No Man’s Sky from Hello Games (makers of Joe Danger). We get a glimpse of unique wildlife, aerial combat and the sense of infinitely different worlds. No player starts on the same planet and exploring different worlds is just the beginning.

Following this lineup of amazing indie titles, we get to some updates on the consoles themselves. YouTube integration such as uploading video clips directly to your YouTube account were revealed. PS Now was revealed to begin open beta on July 31st and select Sony smart TVs will be able to use PS Now: all you need is a Dualshock 3 controller.

And speaking of TVs, Sony announced PS TV: a tiny little box that hooks up to your PS4 and lets you play your PS4 via Remote Play to a secondary TV in your home. You’ll be able to access streaming content as well.

We finally get a gameplay trailer for Mortal Kombat X! Sony shows off some next-gen bone-breaking, neck-snapping & body-dismembering: all the things Mortal Kombat lovers are bloodthirsty for.

Following MKX, Sony brings out comic-writing legend Brian Michael Bendis (who’s writing seemingly a million Marvel titles right now) to promote Powers, a superhero detective story based on the graphic novel written by him as well as a future adapted TV show and video game. The show will be streamed entirely for free for PS+ users also.

On the subject of adaptations, Sony revealed a sneak peek at the Ratchet & Clank movie! Insomniac Games is working closely with the movie to ensure it stays true to the much-beloved franchise.

Afterwards, we get a release date for The Last of Us Remastered: July 29! I’m tempted to pick it up even though I already own it for PS3.

Following The Last of Us Remastered, we get a chilling, music video trailer for the much anticipated Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain featuring the song “Nuclear” by Mike Oldfield.

GTA V for PS4 is confirmed for this fall!! And the best part: you can transfer your PS3 and 360 profiles to PS4. Sweetness.

We’ve all been hearing about Rocksteady’s new Batman: Arkham Knight and we finally get a glimpse of next-gen Bats flying around, knocking out baddies and now we get to see the Dark Knight ride around in his Batmobile! And did we mention that it TURNS INTO A FREAKING TANK? It looks extremely promising and that Scarecrow will be haunting my dreams tonight.

Saving the very best for the very last, Naughty Dog reveals a cinematic trailer for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End. We get dialogue between Nate and Sully about doing one last job together after being out of the game for a while. 2015 can’t come soon enough.

Phew! What a recap! Sony has always known to rock the house at its E3 press conference and this year was no different. So many new titles in the pipeline for Sony and I’m extremely excited to play these games. Thanks for checking out this recap, let us know what game you’re most excited for from Sony! And be sure to subscribe to our podcasts and follow us on all the social media platforms. We’ll be covering more gaming news as the week progresses so stay tuned!

Pixelbot E3 Coverage: EA

This is Brent. We are back. This time covering EA’s press conference. What are you expecting this time?