Twinkling lights, blips and beeps, flickering screens, solicitous sideshow carnies delivering seemingly well-rehearsed spiels — substitute prostitutes for booth babes, cocaine and booze for caffeine — E3 is the Las Vegas of nerdom.
Lost In A Supermarket will once again go undercover to bypass the guards and bring you the anthropological wonders which lie beneath the surface.
A look on the surface, however, will reveal the Electronic Entertainment Expo as the world’s biggest event in video games, certainly, and this year it’s shaping up to be even bigger, according to Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg.
“There’s a console transition coming and naturally, everyone wants to see what new possibilities that will unleash in the games,” Hirshberg said in a statement Friday. “We remain laser focused on delivering the things we know our gamers care about most: great gameplay, immersive worlds, and cool innovations.”
Activision’s lineup includes a new addition to the Call of Duty franchise, Ghosts. The game uses a new engine, according to the game publisher, giving it a higher visual fidelity. Watch the video below to see some examples, including an attack K-9 created for the game by taking high resolution scans from a Navy SEAL service dog.
Nintendo is expected to announce a price reduction on its Wii U and introduce several games for the handheld device, including familiar titles like Super Smash Bros., Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker HD, Mario Kart and New Super Luigi U.
With Microsoft and Sony showcasing their newest console flagships, the Xbox One and Playstation 4, the question on a lot of puckered and Cheeto-stained lips is whether or not gamers will be blocked from playing used games on the consoles with estimated price tags of $400 and $350, respectively, according to industry researcher Michael Pachter.
This may not be the “console transition” that you’d expect, but we say publishers like Battlefield 3‘s Dice have been milking gamers for extra downloadable content since shortly after the game’s 2011 release.
If it’s true that used games will be barred, we’ll just go back to masturbating full time. It sure beats getting jerked by overpriced Vegas hookers wearing too much glitter makeup. We guess it really depends on how desperate you are and how much money you’re willing to spend on the experience.
