E3 2012: the highlights

Square Enix has, recently, transformed itself from a mostly Japanese-centric game maker to a studio creating some of the more interesting Western games on the market.Where Square was perhaps once best known for games like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts, a growing number of gamers are starting to identify the publisher as the name behind big titles like Tomb Raider, Hitman Absolution, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Sleeping Dogs.

Square Enix has, recently, transformed itself from a mostly Japanese-centric game maker to a studio creating some of the more interesting Western games on the market.

The reps from Criterion Games were the happiest people I met at E3, passing around beers to friends, joshing with the racers getting demolished in their new game, Need for Speed: Most Wanted. They made off-the-cuff comments about the freedom they have as a developer to do whatever they want with the series following the success of their last Need for Speed, Hot Pursuit. They're grown-ups, but they were giggling like kids given the keys to one of EA's finest rides.

The latest iteration of the annual racing franchise, like their beloved Burnout Paradise, takes place in an open-world filled with friends, challenges and as many rewards as there are streets. Racing is only part of it.

This year's E3 gathering of all things video gaming in Los Angeles was, by the bombastic, sensory-overloading standards of past E3 shows, a bit workmanlike.It was a show that seemed more focused on the near future, the impressive and probable, then the hyperbole of what may come from future technology.

This year's E3 gathering of all things video gaming in Los Angeles was, by the bombastic, sensory-overloading standards of past E3 shows, a bit workmanlike.

You thought the Ubisoft presentation showed you everything? You were wrong.

By now you've probably watched the E3 presentation of Watch Dogs. If you haven't, you should do so right here. It was easily the most visually impressive demo during this year's conference and one that was truly a surprise for just about every attendee.

Saints Row the Third sold more than four million copies when it was released last fall to mostly positive reviews. But Jason Rubin, the recently appointed president of THQ, says he expects more from the developers who made it and the company that released it.More from Volition and THQ not because Saints Row the Third didn't sell, or didn't garner positive reviews, but more because he knows both can do better.

Saints Row the Third sold more than four million copies when it was released last fall to mostly positive reviews. But Jason Rubin, the recently appointed president of THQ, says he expects more from the developers who made it and the company that released it.

Sessler gets on a soapbox about E3 2012

Polygon catches up with currently unemployed, legendary game journalist Adam Sessler for his thoughts on Microsoft Smart Glass, the NIntendo Wii U and Ubisoft's unusually strong E3 showing.

Watch us live to hear us discuss everything we played at E3 today.

We're streaming live from The Loft™ (not an actual trademark), regaling tales of the third day of E3, where we got our hands on pretty much everything and left no game controller unturned.

E3 2012 brings 45,700 industry professionals to LA.

E3 2012 brought 45,700 industry professionals to Los Angeles this week, netting the city nearly $40 million in revenue.

Here's a fancy vocabulary word from E3 this year: "bifurcation." That's how Sony's John Koller, VP of Marketing for Home Console and Handheld Platforms, describes the current state of the gaming industry. Microsoft and Sony's paths are finally diverging — Nintendo, of course, has been veering away for years. According to John, the "battle for the living room was in 2006, and we've totally moved beyond that." Sony is now putting an emphasis on mobile and, well, video games. But is it moving beyond, or ceding the fight?

I spoke to Avi Greengart, an analyst at Current Analysis, before Microsoft's press conference on Monday, who said "Sony and Microsoft need to tie their consoles into phones and tablets or Apple will start eating away at their market share." Apple's burgeoning iOS ecosystem has already made a huge dent in mobile gaming, and that $99 Apple TV could turn into the living room's next big threat.

Watch Dogs creative director says its built on current-gen hardware, but doesn't rule out the possibility of next-gen.

There's been a lot of speculation about whether Ubisoft Montreal's recently revealed Watch Dogs is actually a next-gen game, due to the near-impossible prettiness of its E3 reveal demo.

Watch us live to hear us discuss everything we played at E3 today.

We're streaming live from The Loft™ (not an actual trademark), regaling tales of the second day of E3, where we got our hands on pretty much everything: Halo 4, XCOM, PlanetSide 2, and about 20 more. Watch the stream, post your comments, love life, etc.

Mech shooter Hawken ambles along a fine line, trying to strike a precarious balance between the fast-paced, shooter action that appeals to some fans of the genre and the trudging simulation realism that appeals to others.

Mech shooter Hawken ambles along a fine line, trying to strike a precarious balance between the fast-paced, shooter action that appeals to some fans of the genre and the trudging simulation realism that appeals to others.

Every year's biggest E3 highlights tend to be concentrated in the three marquee keynotes — those carried out by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony — and one of them has now been posted online in its full glory for repeat consumption. Microsoft's Xbox Media Briefing from Monday includes a deluge of new things to get excited about, such as the return of Master Chief, a teaser for the next instalment of the Gears of War franchise, new languages for Kinect voice controls, and of course, the introduction of the SmartGlass companion app. If you don't quite have the full hour and 50 minutes to digest it all, may we suggest our two-minute summary video below?

Crystal Dynamics gives Lara a lot to do in a short amount of time.

At E3 today, I saw demos for Tomb Raider and 007 Legends. The two differ in many ways, but in one they're polar opposites: In 007, James Bond rarely speaks except in cut-scenes, to the point that it seems weird when his friend speaks to him and he doesn't respond; in Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is more or less an action game Tamagotchi, describing everything she's doing, talking to herself like a crazy person, and breathing loudly when she doesn't have anything to say.

Square Enix's next gen Final Fantasy concept "Agni's Philosophy" revealed.

Square Enix has revealed "a real time technical demonstration movie that utilizes cutting edge game development technology," as seen through the lens of the Final Fantasy series. Dubbed "Agni's Philosophy", it's a stunning, action-packed video that offers another glimpse at the next-generation of video game graphics.

We're streaming live from The Loft™ (not an actual trademark), regaling tales of the first and zero'th day (that's today and yesterday) of E3: Wii U, Sony, EA and everything else oozing out of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Well, almost everything. Watch the stream, post your comments.

After Nintendo's official debut of PIkmin 3 at its E3 2012 press conference, we took some time at their booth to make sure it wasn't just a figment of our imagination.

The core ideals of Pikmin remain 100% unchanged in this latest installment. It's still about controlling a crowd of tiny, colorful, ant-looking creatures, commanding them to battle larger beings and break down walls in a variety of garden environments.

LucasArts sets out to make a new cinematic action game with help from Industrial Light and Magic and others.

It's been a while since we've seen something exciting from LucasArts in the game space, but the newly-revealed Star Wars 1313 has an opportunity to provide the revitalization the Star Wars franchise needs. LucasArts' secret to making a new must-have game is combining the talent from across the vast LucasFilm company and approaching the Star Wars universe from a new, darker angle.

ZombiU is the exclusive zombie-killing simulator for Wii U shown briefly at the Ubisoft and Nintendo press conferences. It is also one of the show's best surprises and one of the most promising games announced for the upcoming console.

Polygon had a chance to go hands-on with the first-person shooter at the Nintendo booth, and found it took full advantage of the Wii U GamePad without falling into the trap of novel, but cumbersome controls.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 trailer bites into gold.

A new trailer for New Super Marios Bros. 2 was shown at today's Nintendo E3 press conference. Details were slim, but we do know the game will focus on gold. You know what that means: headline game time!

The version that will ship with the diminutive console has vastly improved thumbsticks that can also be pressed in to serve as buttons, a sleeker body and molded grips.

Viewed side-by-side with its prototype predecessor, the sleeker retail version of the Wii U's GamePad may look like a device subtly changed.

During today's E3 keynote, Nintendo's Reggie Fils Aime announced four new partners that will be providing content to Wii U owners — Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video, and YouTube. The keynote was largely focused on games, but further details on these new partnerships are coming. "In the future, we'll show you how the Wii U will integrate and elevate entertainment in your living room," Fils Aime explained.

You could find South Park: The Stick of Truth in the back corner of Microsoft's Xbox 360 Showcase event, with project director at Obsidian Entertainment Zane Lyon speaking into a microphone at three rows of seated viewers watching the demo with headphones on.

Elsewhere in the showcase, demos happened without the necessity of headsets. The Gears of War: Judgement multiplayer area had no such formality, nor did the Fable: The Journey setup. But for South Park: The Stick of Truth, it's all about presentation.

This morning Microsoft made good on last week's rumors with the announcement of Xbox SmartGlass, a companion app for mobile devices and Windows 8 PCs that lets you control and interact with videos and games you play on the Xbox 360. We were given an early look at the app running on a Windows 8 tablet and a Windows Phone device, and while there were some bumps in the road we have to say we're quite impressed at the product's potential. In its most primitive form, SmartGlass is a Wi-Fi remote app for video. When launched, the app goes into "listening" mode, and seamlessly syncs up with any SmartGlass-enabled content, providing the usual array of controls (we were shown School of Rock from Microsoft's own first-party movie service as well as a clip of Game of Thrones from the HBO Go app). That's just where the story begins, however; what SmartGlass really offers is a way to access additional interactive material while you're watching a program or playing a game.

SmartGlass is based around what Microsoft is calling "activities," which can include anything from a director's commentary to an interactive map (unfortunately, the Game of Thrones example shown off this morning didn't work during our demo). Additional information about a movie or TV show's cast and creators is a logical step, and SmartGlass doesn't disappoint: during School of Rock, one page displayed a shifting array of faces, representing each actor present in a scene — all in real time. Selecting a given actor on the demo tablet brought up their filmography, and it was possible to play other movies the actor was featured in, jumping to the specific scenes where they were present. All of this added content is keyed off the timecode in the video stream, and Microsoft is hoping content creators will take the additional material they're producing for Blu-rays, DVDs, websites, and apps, and use it in SmartGlass as a type of write-once, run-anywhere for value-added content.