Sony's Press Conference at E3 2011 took no time in getting to the elephant in the room, otherwise known as the PlayStation Network outage. With 6,000 in the audience and millions watching world wide, Sony America president Jack Tretton apologized over and over for the trouble caused and hoped they could convince their customers to return.
There seems to be an ongoing theme in the trailers coming out of E3 today. They're rated "M," and proud of it. Some gory games are due out in the year ahead. This new trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine is no exception. Watch Captain Titus slice and dice some orks with friends. If you look closely you may even see some Chaos critters. I'm kidding, you don't have to look that hard. They're near the end, looking all Chaosy. WH40k: Space Marine will be out on September 6 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. It supports 4 player online co-op.
This morning LucasArts sent a fact sheet out on the Holonet for Kinect Star Wars, and it confirmed two player local co-op support for at least one of its multiple modes. According to our on-the-scene Galactic News reporter, Nick Sunrunner, the gameplay looks like it has something to be desired.
Hey, look - an actual surprise announcement from E3! No, really...this completely unspoiled four-player co-op shooter game was announced today (yes, today - during E3, believe it or not) by Insomniac Games - the studio behind the co-op friendly Resistance series - and a cinematic trailer was provided, to boot.
Microsoft's E3 2011 Press Conference seemed to have its ups and downs. While titles like Mass Effect 3, Modern Warfare 4, and Gears of War 3 (ICE-T and Cliffy B co-op!) shined, other titles didn't look so hot - like Star Wars Kinect. Some of the most interesting things to come out of their show though were new technology demos for their system - Bing Search, Avatar Scanning with Kinect, 3D Object Scanning and numerous other little tweaks and features for their console.
Microsoft seems to have missed the boat on a few things during their E3 2011 Press Briefing, namely two great features we spotted in a post conference press release of upcoming goodies. While the demonstration were heavy on Kinect titles and enhancements there was a lot of time spent on the new dashboard and a focus on how the 360 will become a central hub for family entertainment across all mediums.
The new Resident Evil movie looks pretty cool. Wait, this isn't a movie! This is a trailer for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. The third person shooter will have co-op play for up to four players online. The game is set during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3. You remember those games, right? Those were the halcyon days when tank controls ruled and ammo was scarce. Never mind that the series has turned into an over-the-shoulder action extravaganza. Gamers will play as either the Umbrella Security Service or a United States Special Operations task force. This new trailer is light on gameplay, but heavy on action. You can expect Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City to be out before the end of the year.
The new Dead Island E3 trailer is live. This one features first person drinking, swearing, and lots and lots of blood. Barrels of blood, even. This game is looking incredibly gory, which is always a plus when dealing with zombies. The trailer is a -sequel? Prequel? Continuation? Heck, we'll go with "a Part Two." This trailer is the second part to the "Tragedy Hits Paradise" trailer, which you can see here.
Microsoft's E3 briefing has just been completed, and there was, as expected, lots of co-op news included. Perhaps the biggest story is the fact that not one, but TWO Halo games were announced.
This edition of MMOCO introduces a new structure for the column. The old structure will still make an appearance from time to time, but we'll mostly be focusing on updates to existing MMOs that improve upon or provide more co-opportunities and news about upcoming MMOs that hint at co-opportunities.
So after a long and quiet hiatus, Rayman: Origins came out of left field with a release date and pre-order availability. But to be quite frank, we haven't had the chance to explore exactly what we'll be getting in this full retail (i.e. more expensive) package. For the most part it's a straightforward affair, but thanks to Ubisoft's press blast we can say that the below information is now as official as it gets.
A quick co-op nugget before E3 officially kicks off later today: Crimson Alliance is coming to Xbox 360 this summer. The game is an action RPG with a heavy emphasis on the action, and no "tedious backpack rummaging" or "boring dialog", according to developer Certain Affinity.
