5. Tales of Xillia Localization Announcement
Coming into 2012, western Tales fans were feeling neglected. There had been no western release of any Tales game since 2009 with the Xbox 360 version of Tales of Vesperia and the Tales of Symphonia sequel: Dawn of the New World. We had missed out on flagship titles Hearts, Innocence, and Graces.
However, things began to look up starting at the beginning of the year. Tales of the Abyss 3D, an updated version of the PS2 game, released in North America in February (also worth noting, it released in Europe for the first time in 2011). Tales of Graces was enhanced for the PS3 – as Tales of Graces f – and released in both North America and Europe.
Then, on July 6th, at the Japan Expo in Paris, Tales series producer Hideo Baba announced that Tales of Xillia, the 13th flagship game in the Tales series, would be coming to North America and Europe. No specific date has been revealed but he said that it will release in 2013.
If you are not a Tales fan, let me explain it this way. This marks the first time since Vesperia that we not only get a flagship title but a flagship title on the original system it was designed for. You have no idea how excited these fans are.
And who knows, perhaps if this does well we can get more Tales games to come over. You know, maybe Hearts R, Innocence R, and Xillia 2?
4. Ubisoft reveals WATCH_DOGS
E3, for all intents and purposes, was fairly tame this past year. We did get some awesome reveals, like Ellen Page in Quantic Dream’s newest game: Beyond: Two Souls, the reveal of ZombiU, and Sony’s latest montage. But nothing had the entire gaming public drooling on the floor more than when Ubisoft revealed Watch Dogs, a game we had no idea even existed before E3.
It started simple, a video showing how a central operating system works. This ctOS video already got gamers excited but once the excited creative director, Jonathan Morin, appeared on stage (after the crowd was scanned) and began playing, the excitement began to overflow.
The main character, a John Cusack-looking person named Aiden Pierce, is able to use the city to his advantage. He can hack into various outlets, tap into people’s conversations on the phone, and adjust just about any electronic device he wants from his phone.
The gameplay was amazing to watch. The character looked badass. And the city of Chicago never looked better, playing as the backdrop to this demonstration. That may be enough for the average Sandbox game, but Ubisoft wasn’t done there.
A second player.
A second character with a separate mission.
This is what excited us about Watch Dogs. It is an isometric multiplayer, sandbox game with an awesome main character. This was the reason why Watch Dogs easily won our Best of E3 Top 10 list – and one of the reasons why our fans raged at us for that list.
It is currently scheduled to come to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. No date has been given and no Wii U port has been announced yet. But whatever it’s on and whenever it comes out, you know we’ll be excited about it.
