Tom, Rich and Jacob discuss the results of the EA event, and prepare mentally for Ubisoft. 

Tom, Rich and Jacob discuss the Xbox event. Discus their favorite and least favorite announcements.

Ubisoft opened their presser with the first look at “Far Cry 4”. This is the first time we’ve seen gameplay since the announcement recently, and it looks incredible. You can check it below!

At the end of their press conference Ubisoft dropped a bomb that has been 6 years in the making.”Rainbow Six: Siege” is coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One. This looks like the game we’ve been waiting for from Rainbow for a long time.

Phil Spencer started the Microsoft Presser with a friendly greeting to his competitors as he discussed the next gen as the “best experience yet”. In a not too surprising numbers free discussion he then moved the conversation into the games we will see this year and next for their flagship console.

First up was “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” from Activision and Sledgehammer games.  A few extra features included are the selective grenades, gorgeous facial mapping and intense combat. The huge machines marching through the city definitely gave a futuristic feel to the title. Gameplay trailer below:

Next up we had Dan Greenawalt announcing the Nurburgring track hitting Xbox Live today for current players of the game. He also briefly mentioned that Forza: Horizon 2 is headed out this fall, with real-time dynamic weather, day and night settings and multi-player drivatar. Shortly after the HD fancy cars began driving by to the dramatic techno musics.

Next we were treated to a gameplay preview of Evolve, yet again showing that the creators of “Left for Dead” are hell bent on making the 4 VS 1 experience flawless. Evolve is going to be legendary, seriously, legendary.

Viewers were then treated to a multi-player demonstration of “Assassin’s Creed Unity”. Taking place during the French Revolution, you and your team of Assassin’s can work together through Xbox Live to achieve your murderous intent. You can see the game play demo, below:

As if Microsoft wasn’t pushing the hype engine hard enough, they then rolled straight into “Dragon Age: Inquisition”. This demo further introduced us to the world and story that has been pumping up since last year. BioWare looks to show that they are bringing their “A” game to next gen. You can catch the preview below:

Insomniac Games hit the stage aiming to steal the show, and took some pretty impressive shots. Showing the cartoony and sassy “Sunset Overdrive” blends “Jet Set Radio” style grinding with 3^rd person shooting. When energy drinks have turned the town’s people into terrifying zombies, a plot, that I need not remind you was the basis for “Devil May Cry.” You and only you can save them with your zany antics. This looks incredibly fun and the 8-player chaos mode brings a new dimension to slaughtering masses of monsters. Trailer below:

If you’re looking for a show stealer, you need not look much further than the new DLC for Dead Rising 3 available today. “Super Ultra Dead Rising 3: Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX+ Alpha” is available for gamers today, featuring cosplay from many of Capcom’s heavy hitting series. You can check out the trailer that was shown, right below:

Next Harmonix unveiled Dance Central: Spotlight which will be packed with chart topping hits and reveal new tracks faster than ever before. They also briefly discussed Fantasia: Music Evolved, which is coming soon. Reveal below:

Fable Legends was then shown off to the crowd, with discussion of beta hitting this fall. The game will now include a new “villain mode” which gives you a “Dungeon Keeper” style interface, where you lay traps, minions, and obstacles to stop the heroes from reaching their goal. This game has been in development by Lionhead for quite some time and has some huge shoes to fill.

Trailer:

Project Spark was then given more detail with a new interactive trailer. This demo shows just how far you can push the boundaries within Spark. Most notable announcement from this portion was the inclusion of Conker as a usable character. With any luck we’ll also be given access to the slew of baddies from his games, so that my world of Teddies and Poo Demons can be complete. Spark trailer below:

Cd Projekt Red stepped up to show more detail from the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt; which looks to be a heavy hitting next gen game. With the popularity of the Witcher series and the intensity of the trailers leading up to today, the tone being set makes March 2015 seem forever away. You can catch more information on the game below:

Next was one of my favorite announcements of the day so far. Rise of the Tomb Raider, shows Lara Croft trying to cope with the events of the first title while she obviously spends time exploring the world around her. This new look at Lara Croft has me incredibly pumped to see what Square-Enix and Crystal Dynamics have in store. The first game is one of the most underrated titles of last year, and this new one looks to be a blockbuster in the making.

Ubisoft then took the stage to treat us to a gameplay demo from “The Division” which has been delayed into next year. Touting a 3^rd person perspective and a team dynamic reminiscent of Ghost Recon this definitely looks to be the new direction of Ubisoft shooters. You can catch the gameplay video below:

Platinum Games took the stage to show their new IP Scalebound, which looks to be a very heavy blend of DMC and RPG. Your dragon rider can armor up to battle massive beasts ruling the world.

The discussion was moved to a beautiful looking title “Ori and the Blind Forest” which looks incredibly beautiful, but is shrouded in quite a bit of mystery. This then moved into a montage of the slew of indie titles hitting the Xbox One this year and hopefully next as well. Along with the montage the trailer for every indie game was also released to the Xbox YouTube channel. This announcement could not prepare us for what was next.

The penultimate announcement for the conference was the “Halo: Master Chief Collection” that is releasing on November 11, 2014. This collection includes every map made in multi-player for Halo, Halo2, Halo 3, and Halo 4, along with, the coinciding games. Halo 2 will also be receiving the anniversary treatment with a visual facelift and all games will run on their own engine and have dedicated servers provided by Microsoft. For those of us that cracked out for years on Halo 2 this is an incredible opportunity to use the Xbox One to relive those moments. Along with this announcement Microsoft also revealed that the Halo 5: Guardians beta will be available in December, and will be available to everyone purchasing the collection. This final announcement was pretty huge. While not a lot of Halo 5 has been shown and still wasn’t shown in this conference the “Master Chief: Collection” is sure to bring the hype train that we’ve been looking for.

The final announcement was definitely a shocker as Microsoft revealed a new Crackdown coming to Xbox One. The visual aspect looks the same as the previous, as well as the over the top action. This game puts you back at fighting gangs as a member of the agency. You can catch the announcement below:

Be sure to sound off folks, what was your favorite part of this conference?

During the Forza presentation at the Microsoft Presser, Dan Greenawalt announced that Forza 5 would be receiving the Nurbugring track for free on Xbox Live. This fan favorite was noticeably absent from the game until today’s announcement. Forza Horizon 2 was also announced to release later this year. You can check the Nurbugring trailer below. 

The crew at Entertainment Is Dead gathered to discuss their hopes and dreams for this year. They also spend some time discussing their biggest disappointments from years past. There will be recaps of the various press conferences through these fine folk as well, so be sure to subscribe to their YouTube Channel and find them on twitter @eidpodcast.

E3 2014 is upon us once again, and this year aims to be a software slugfest. With all next gen consoles on the shelves the Big Three are going to be focusing on the titles their respective systems will deliver to the game-hungry masses. We here at Big Shiny Robot! will be sure to keep you updated on the latest comings and goings of the event. We’ve got a man on the ground and our eyes on the web; so keep us refreshing as the news hits.

The conference schedule is as follows:

930 AM Pacific 1030 Mountain Time – Microsoft Press Event

Microsoft will surely be leading of with the heavy hitters releasing this year, and I’d bet the fortune I just gave that Nigerian prince to save his family that they will end with Halo 5 game play or at least plot description. While we can imagine the chest thumping they will also most likely show some new software features for the Xbox One and maybe unveil the next season of KI characters too?

12:00 PM Pacific 1:00 Mountain Time – EA Event

EA will pimp their next generation of sports titles, and I’m sure will start talking about a new Battlefield title. The big news we’re looking for from them is what Star Wars titles they’re working on with the exclusive licensing. Maybe this year we’ll get to see more of that Battlefront title they teased last year?

3:00 PM Pacific 4:00 PM Mountain Time – Ubisoft

Ubisoft will undoubtedly show off Assassin’s Creed Unity in greater depth, and who knows, maybe they’ll start to discuss a new Splinter Cell, show us some more Rabbids, the sky is the limit! Truthfully more details on “The Division” is the real boatload here, though it has been delayed, the game still looks to be extremely awesome. 

6:00 PM Pacific 7:00 PM Mountain Time – Sony Press Event

Finally Sony will wrap up the day with undoubted chest thumping for their brand and a massive list of titles releasing. You can already see a large list of what they will be discussing on the PlayStation Blog, with many surprises with held. We can count on more discussion around Uncharted 4, The Last Guardian, Destiny, and a whirlwind of others. If all goes well PlayStation Now will get a price and solid date, and the world can continue moving forward.

Tuesday June 10th 9:00 AM Pacific Time 10:00 Mountain Time – Nintendo Press Event

Nintendo will be holding their E3 Digital event bright and early tomorrow for you west coasters. If all goes well we can get the final roster and a date for Smash Bros. I’m sure we’ll hear some Mario Kart 8 chest thumping, and hopefully we can be given a huge list o new IP coming to push the WiiU forward. Or maybe we’ll get a back pedal and a plan change. (the latter statement is doubtful as Nintendo believes in their ways religiously.)

Keep our E3 section tabbed in your browser and we’ll keep feeding you the juicy details from Los Angeles. The celebration begins shortly, I hope you’ve brought your a game!

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, kicks off June 9 with an abundance of announcements from the makers of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Wii U. Then, the doors of the Los Angeles Convention Center opens June 10, showcasing the biggest video games launching this holiday and beyond.

It happens like clockwork around this time of year when some people question if E3 is still relevant or if it should give up the ghost.

That’s like asking what we need christmas for because we can gift each other things all year long.

It’s just that there is this one date, where everyone focuses on what’s next in video games, where all big console manufacturers and the biggest third party publisher compete with each other almost face to face with what they have in stock to catch the interest of gamers over the next year. All set with conferences with fixed dates you can wait for, you know when they start their rain of announcements and you can ask fellow gamers to watch them together with you live and comment on all the awes and fails via the social network of your choice.

In exactly the same way that the Oscars promote Hollywood’s films, keep them in the mind of their customers, and give them an air of gravitas and respectability, E3 does for the games industry. This is the time of year that the mainstream press dishes out a bunch of free publicity to videogames companies, and reminds people that games make more money than movies. Many industries have suffered because they have let their narrative be seized and written by outsiders. E3 lets companies tell their story, namely that the intent of videogames is to be entertaining, fun, and social with broad varieties for broad tastes. E3 is the face that games companies put on not to gamers, but to the rest of the world.

Of course it still matters. Maybe not to some of the cynics, but to gaming at large. If not E3, something like it. And no, GDC doesn’t count, PAX doesn’t count, Gamescom doesn’t count unless E3 stops existing, and none of the publisher-specific events out there will ever count. It’s a trade show, not a festival, not an event that is all games and no demonstration, and not an impromptu temporary theme park – but an honest-to-goodness place, where the industry and the people in it “debut” their nearly-finished or finished works and innovations.

I don’t think people who go there in person routinely are aware of how E3 filters out. Its footprint is insane by comparison to anything else. The media wears something nice and gets the pundits to sit and talk games on Television and the intertubes. Every site is skinned for it. Every publisher works for it. Every investor pays attention to it. The more attention drawn, the bigger the exposure to its target audience. This exposure works in everyone’s favor, for developers, studios, and indies. Giving them the spotlights they need to showcase our upcoming gaming future and any other big interesting announcements. If they just let loose like any normal announcement on an average day, the exposure won’t be as large or solid, and if you’re an indie company, or a new indie company, you most likely won’t be on everyone’s radar. And thus, won’t have a big reach to your audience.

With that being said…I wouldn’t mind seeing pre-keynote predictions/coverage, broadcasting the keynotes, and post-presser reactions, but they should have significantly more interviews and demos compared to what they show – stuff that runs the LENGTH of E3, not just the first two big days. They don’t need to show the secondary pressers (Ubi, Konami, etc.) for all I care – make them available online and have a ticker scroll across the screen with actual, punctual updates while you’re still doing interviews/demo coverage. Send reporters onto the floor via remote segments, host more journalist (recap/reaction) panels, etc.

Being a gamer isn’t just about playing games, it’s about being deeply immersed in the culture surrounding them, and E3 is the pinnacle of that. What are your predictions and rumors for this years event? Sound off in the comments. 

-Dagobot

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The actor behind Ryu in “Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist” was kind enough to spend some time with us to discuss his role in the new web series that hit Machinima today. You can watch the episodes here, or on their YouTube channel.

Mike Moh as Ryu

BSR!: You already have an impressive martial arts background, what kind of pre-work went into your role as Ryu?

I started martial arts over 15 years ago and was inspired by Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles and later on even Street Fighter. This is full circle being able to play Ryu, I focus on Taekwondo mainly and it was a unique challenge to adapt my style to Ansatsuken, which isn’t a real style, but you know using the games and the anime. It was fun playing the game to learn the style. It was also fun doing those acrobatic moves, and practicing what I was able to do like the Tatsumaki’s, but with special effects and practice it worked out.

BSR!: You and Christian Howard have a great synergy in the show, how do did you foster that?

Christian and I met for the first time two weeks before filming, and we hit it off right away. The whole crew was really great and there was no ego, we knew we had a to do a good job and Joey knew he needed everyone fully invested before finalizing the cast and he did a great job picking team players that were fully invested.

BSR!: You mentioned playing the game, did you mess around with any other characters or did you focus on Ryu for study?

When I was a kid I mainly played Street Fighter II on Super Nintendo, I didn’t play the newer iterations. When I got cast for this project I jumped into the Street Fighter 4 series. Oddly enough, Ryu was always my character. I started with Chun-Li because I figured if I could mash one button and do ok, but once I learned the quarter circle rolls and everything I focused on him. I would do the moves for 5 or so minutes and then go into training in front of a mirror to practice the movements. It was really fun playing with the controller and then practicing to make it look as authentic as possible.

BSR!: There is a fight scene in one of the earlier episodes between you and Ken, and it’s the first time you two really go at it, what was recording that scene like?

That fight was a lot of fun, but it was really stressful as well. I remember that day, because they were trying to decide whether to shoot outside the Dojo or inside, and I was lobbying hard to do it inside, since the interior was so amazing. Selfishly I wanted to fight on that floor. Eventually because of the lighting and the amount of time we had, we went inside and set up lighting. Once we began we were under the clock, a lot of the takes were 1 or 2 takes, the Tatsumaki when Ken knocks me down was 1 take. We were like “Whoa! That was awesome! Let’s move on!” That floor wasn’t very forgiving and we’re throwing each other around, so a lot of those takes we only wanted to do 1 or 2. Coming from my background we usually do 4 or 5 takes, but we really knocked this out of the park; and for me and Chris this was our first time fighting, we had done a ton of training montages, but not full fights. We were also hitting each other pretty hard so we definitely felt it the next day.

BSR!: The scene where you guys sneak out to the bar looks like there could be more to it, did you shoot any additional scenes?

You know, not a lot was left on the cutting room floor since we were on a tight schedule. But that scene was really fun shooting in the bar in one day and being outside of the Dojo for a while.

BSR!: Do you have a favorite scene, or something you’re looking forward to seeing at the premiere?

My favorite part of the whole series is the final fight scene with Chris and I. Both of our fights were a lot of fun to shoot. I’m also really excited to see the development of Gouki/Akuma . I think you’ll be very impressed to see how Gaku and Joey pull that off. Being more of a casual fan I didn’t know every part of the story, that was something I learned when we went to shoot is that back-story which most casual fans don’t know.

BSR!: What are you working on now?

Right now I’m just training, I’m also set to open up my own full time martial arts school. Between that and a cool stylized martial arts western. Mainly that and amping up my training and lifting to prepare for another part of the seriesso I can rival Gouki.