Oh no! Someone got co-op in an established horror franchise again! Never fear, horror fans, I assure you Dead Space 3 will still leave you trembling, or whatever it is you do when you're scared. The EA "booth complex" had a Dead Space 3 video which showed off the game's new co-op mode. I guess it's not really a "mode." They simply added drop-in/drop-out co-op to the campaign.
Aliens: Colonial Marines had a strong presence at the Sega booth. Gearbox managed to score the original Alien Queen as well as a sweet Powerloader/Soldier Alien display. The multiplayer versus mode of the game was available to the press (short line) and public (ridiculous line). The gameplay featured a team of Marines in a heated battle against a pack (gaggle, hive, herd, murder?) of Xenomorphs. Yeah, I know it's not co-op, but at least Mike and I would get a chance to feel how the game played. And it felt goooooood.
On Tuesday night of E3 2012 we were able to attend a party where the Hawken developers were showing off the current build of their fast paced mech game. Now Hawken does not contain any co-op...yet, but the game was so damn impressive we wanted to report on it.
Long lines and a distinct lack of appointments given to us from Nintendo largely kept our busy editors away from test-driving the WiiU at this year's E3, but as luck would have it, our Warner Bros. booth visit included a chance to check out Scribblenauts Unlimited, the first co-op entry in the popular
Diablo 3 has gotten a new patch which brings a major change to co-op gameplay. Previously as more players joined your game, the difficulty of monsters would scale up - this included not only their health but their damage. The patch has removed the damage scaling but left the health scaling in tact. It's a curious change, one that Blizzard hopes encourages players to play co-op more. The patch also makes pots drop less gold than before. I guess calls from the anti-pot destruction league worked.
While visiting the Atlus booth at E3 and ogling Persona 4 Arena, I noticed that there was a small 3DS demo station tucked into the back corner. Upon further inspection, I discovered that there was a playable build of the just-announced Code of Princess, a 2D side-scrolling brawler due out this Fall.
In this world of global events, some people may be unawares that it is currently the football European Championship held in Poland and the Ukraine. Not big co-op news in itself, but if there is one thing that will get millions of English people around their TV, its soccer. Seeing this potential audience, Microsoft cleverly released their extended live action trailer for Halo 4 during the half time adverts of England vs France. Courtesy of the Tube of You, we can also get a glimpse of the video.
It is always a privilege to talk to Runic Games, and this time at E3 2012 we were able to sit down and play through Torchlight 2 with them. We checked out the four classes, the pets, and of course the loot and I must say that it is shaping up to be an amazingly fluid action rpg experience.
It’s always a huge deal when a StarCraft expansion is close to release, just like when the original Starcraft got a major facelift when it upgraded to the Brood War expansion. Now, StarCraft 2 will be unleasing the1st of two expansions: Heart of the Swarm with new units to command.
I saw the Ascend: New Gods trailer at the Microsoft press conference and made a mental note to check it out. Dark fantasy games have been trumping twitchy shooters for me, lately. I found the game on display in the Microsoft booth.
Namco Bandai proudly displayed their new cooperative Star Trek game at E3. Once past the booth-babe-bookended Captain's chair I entered the Star Trek theater. The game was presented on two side by side displays in glorious 3D. While we couldn't play the game ourselves, Star Trek was demoed in a playable build, and it looked pretty sharp.
Dragon riding aficionados may have noticed something missing from this week's Co-Op Release Alert. Crimson Dragon was supposed to launch this week but was unceremoniously delayed. According the Xbox.com it has been set to release on December 31st, 2799, which means it's not my problem, or anyone else's for that matter.
