That was pretty much what I said when I saw this, because in my very humble human brain, EA and good don’t mix, at least that ideology has been holding true until I got a reply from a job at BioWare I applied for telling me I didn’t get the job (It’s a very decent move to actually tell the applicant that he/she didn’t get the job). But I didn’t think they’d go all out like that! Seriously, Humble “Origin” Bundle? If you had asked me about this a couple of days ago I would have laughed at you, I would actually still be laughing right now at the ridiculousness of what you said, but I was proven wrong, Oh so wrong.
So, onto the good stuff, what you get in this unicorn of a bundle:
Beat The Average and get:
1. Battlefield 3 (Origin)
2. The Sims 3 + Starter Pack (Origin)
Pay anything (>$1) and get:
1. Dead Space (Origin + Steam)
2. Dead Space 3 (Origin)
3. Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (Origin + Steam)
4. Mirror’s Edge (Origin + Steam)
5. Crysis 2: Maximum Edition (Origin + Steam)
6. Medal Of Honor (Origin + Steam)
And here’s more of a kicker, EA won’t get a cent of all of this, everything goes to either charities or as a Humble tip, or, you know, mix and match.
This is admittedly a really astounding move on EA’s part to reverse some of the bad karma they’ve been getting all over the interwebz by being voted “Worse Company in America” a couple of times in a row. Besides, it’ll get tons of people installing Origin, since, well, for $1 you get Dead Space 3, both an Origin exclusive and a game that’s literally just come out a few months back.
If you’re interested in buying this, and there is absolutely no reason why you should not be, go here.
All I can say now is this, EA, you have earned back my respect. And thank you for the practically free games.
First off, I’d like to apologize to all my readers for this rather long hiatus I took from writing, but, well, I have finals, I actually have a final the day after tomorrow, but that’s E3 we’re talking about here, so in other words, screw the finals!
E3 2012 kicked off with Microsoft, they had some interesting things to show off, sadly though, not interesting enough, they started with Halo 4, which I personally thought that it looked impressive, I’ve never played any Halo game before since I don’t own an Xbox, but it did look impressive never the less, the lighting was really nice, and the portion of the game shown was in some jungle, with apparently a new threat, I wouldn’t really know though, leave it to you hardcore Xbox gamers to let me know. Then they showed off the next Gears Of War, which I skipped, along with shamingly Dance Central, with an appearance from Usher on stage, then they demonstrated Black Ops II and I was very underwhelmed, the first trailer got me excited for the game, I mean, Call Of Duty FINALLY taking a new direction! This could be interesting, but the engine underwhelmed me, the whole dynamics of the game did so as well, I didn’t really care for it after the demo to be completely honest. Microsoft then showed off a new service called Xbox Glass, what Xbox Glass does, is simply provide more information on whatever media you’re viewing/listening to on your smartphone/tablet (Android/iOS/WinPhone), it was impressive when they were viewing last week’s episode of Game Of Thrones, and on the Windows 8 tablet a map of the Game Of Thrones world, showing where each character is at the moment, giving additional information about everything going on, it was impressive, but I don’t see it really becoming revolutionary.
Microsoft also had in their press conference a new XBL game called the Recketeers, which is essentially an Angry Birds rip off, yep, they ripped off freaking Angry birds…
The one thing that was interesting in Microsoft’s press conference was the new Southpark RPG game, which looked VERY interesting, it looks a lot like an episode straight out of the series. You play as a new kid who tries to get in the group of Kenny, Kyle, Cartman, and Stan, it’s pretty funny!
That’s basically what caught my attention in Microsoft’s press conference, it wasn’t all that much.
EA were next, and again, underwhelming, I couldn’t bare watch their entire press conference as I was bored to tears from how little they were bringing to the table, the thing however that got me even more annoyed was how they were trash talking Call Of Duty on twitter, yet what they were bringing was essentially the same thing Call of Duty has been doing ever since their Modern Warfare 3 release, they released Call Of Duty Elite, EA announced Battlefield Premium, which is essentially Elite, you pay $50 and get 5 DLCs, Back to Karkand, Close Quarters, and 3 others. Disappointing to say the least.
Next up was Ubisoft’s press conference, and since I’m a huge Assassin’s Creed fan, I was anticipating this more than any other of the press conferences, and how do they start? Just freaking Dance 4, for all of us core gamers who don’t like (read: want to rid the world of) dancing games, it was shameful that a studio creating games as epic as Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry would advertise Just Dance, but, oh well. Assassin’s Creed was the highlight of Ubisoft’s press conference, they showcased a live gameplay demo of Connor hunting a dear, then fighting wolves, then rushing through a battalion of soldiers firing at him, and taking them all out, it was nothing short of epic!
They also showcased the new Rayman, entitled Rayman: Legends, which is exclusive to the WiiU (Big mistake if you ask me, Rayman: Origins did so well on all other platforms), it was a very entertaining demo, it showed how the WiiU controller plays with the regular Wii controller. And lastly, they showed another WiiU exclusive, a zombie apocalypse game called – Wait for it – ZombiU… I can’t believe the name either, the game looks nice, but the name is ridiculous at best.
And finally, concluding the first day of E3 was Sony, and I have to say, after a series of disappointments, I was really looking up to Sony to cheer me up, and cheer me up they did! Now I want it to be known that what I’m about to say, isn’t because I am biased to Sony, or that I’m a hardcore PlayStation gamer or any of that, what I’m about to say is based on genuine admiration of the lack of any dancing games in their press conference, yeah, it made that big of a difference for me.
Sony kicked off the press conference with a completely new IP, that of Quantic Dream’s none the less, you all remember that “Kara” video we saw a few months ago? They used that technology to prove to everyone that after six years, the PlayStation 3 is still at full strength, kicking ass! Quantic Dream’s new IP is called Beyond, and I’ll leave you with the demo for the game to see for yourself:
Beyond tells how our world, and the world of the dead connect together, the main character has this friend, who is, from what I understood, dead, and he/she is helping her out, or accompanying her throughout the game. I won’t go further into any details as I didn’t understand much.
Sony later showed Super Bot’s new IP PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale, at first I was thinking of this as a Super Smash Bros Brawl rip off, and that thought hasn’t changed, but truth be told, it looks REALLY nice! And, for all you Vita owners out there, you’ll be happy to know that it’s coming out for the Vita as well, and is cross play compatible with the PlayStation 3!
They mentioned a Call Of Duty game for the Vita as well, which will be nice considering how all the reviews of Resistance: Burning Skies were surprisingly low, hopefully Call Of Duty: Black Ops Declassified can bring better FPS action to the Vita, they didn’t show off any gameplay though, or even a trailer.
Now what got me even more happy about Sony’s press conference was their Ubisoft segment, a Vita Assassin’s Creed game! Not only that, it’s with a new female assassin! Which is a new addition to the series, a welcome addition really, and they announced that upon connecting the two Assassin’s Creed games together, you’ll get benefits in the PlayStation 3 Assassin’s Creed 3 game!
After that Sony showed off co-op play in Far Cry 3 which was nice, lots of flame throwers for my liking, but okay.
Sony then showcased a new gadget for the PlayStation 3, Wonderbook! This new book like interface is impressive, it’s basically a book, with the pages like the AR cards from the Vita, it works with the PlayStation Eye, and the Move, and it was really nice, not so much for core gamers though, but a nice educational tool. They showcased a book by J.K. Rowling called Book Of Spells, which puts you in Hogwarts and have you learn spells with the move controller as your wand, it’s an impressive new gadget.
Next they showed off God Of War: Ascension, they showed a nice gameplay demo which made the new game feel very familiar to God Of War 3, mechanics wise, though I would’ve been happier with a story trailer, to understand what the heck is going on. Sony ended their press conference with (Yes, you guessed it) The Last Of Us, a game play trailer of Naughty Dog’s amazing new IP, though there are no signs of the infected we saw in the very first trailer for the game, it plays a lot like Uncharted though, only grittier, humorless, and over all amazingly dark, unlike in Uncharted, where you press square behind an enemy to snap their neck, in The Last Of Us, your enemy struggles, making it all the more realistic, and they emphasized how scarce ammunition is in the game, and how bad it means for you to run out!
My thoughts about the first day of E3? Sony saved the day, it was very disappointing until Sony’s press conference, Microsoft lacked a lot of things, new IPs mainly, if there was ever a company in desperate need of new IPs, it is without a doubt Microsoft. Let me know what you folks thought of E3’s first day press conferences, and have a nice day!
Metal Geek 