The Making Of The E3 Titanfall Mech

One of the coolest E3 set pieces came in the form of the gigantic Titanfall mech which graced the entrance to the showfloor. Aside from being a 1:1 scale replica, the mech was impressively detailed, covered in battle wear, dings, scratches and an attention to detail that we've rarely seen for such a display at previous conventions. During an after party we happened to get into a conversation with some Respawn studios developers, and learned some rather surprising details about the making of the mech: While the mostly foam base was contracted out to a third party, the actual weathering, details and attachments on the mechs were taken care of by artists who worked on Titanfall.

Described as a 'fun little project,' the developer disclosed that a group of game artists spent a few weeks gathering up found objects and hardware from places like Home Depot and went to town on detailing the display and mech with spent shell casings, paint damage, rust, decals and more. Considering the amount of work that these devs put into a display model of one of their Titan mechs, I can only imagine how that type of passion will translate into the final game. Check out a ton more detail shots, and a turnaround of the full mech after the break.

E3 2013 Indie Showcase: Transistor

Earlier this year, fans of the fantastic indie title, Bastion, were treated with a tease for Super Giant's upcoming game, Transistor. After Bastion being released exclusively for PC and XBLA, it was quite a surprise when Sony announced an exclusive console release for the Playstation 4, solidifying their push for more indie titles.  Featuring the same beautiful art of Jan Zee and a pulsating soundtrack, Transistor is absolutely stunning in person.

In Transistor you play as Red, who loses her voice in the midst of chaos and stumbles upon a talking blade called Transistor. The gameplay feels tight,allowing for quick movement around the map, but the real meat of it all stems from the ability to freeze time. In the midst of battle players can freeze the battlefield and move freely around as they line up attacks and shots to gain an upper-hand on the battlefield. The mechanic feels smooth and balances nicely with a cooldown bar, forcing players to plan their assault without jumping straight into battle.

Along with the ability to freeze time in the midst of combat, some areas also require this ability to complete puzzles to progress. The gameplay was amazingly fluid and felt extraordinarily tight, something that not even a lot of AAA action games manage to nail. After the game's initial announcement all the way up to it's reveal during Sony's press conference, my excitement for Transistor has grown immensely and I'm excited to get my hands on the final release.

E3 2013 Indie Showcase: Super Ponchos By Switchblade Monkeys

Switchblade Monkeys' Secret Ponchos came as a total surprise to us this year, and it truly left an amazing impression on us. Developed by a passionate group of creatively dissatisfied devs who decided to leave corporate development environments behind, their recently unveiled title was an absolute blast to play, focusing on fast paced combat in an isometric environment.

E3 2013 Indie Showcase: Mercenary Kings By Tribute Games

Following the surprise announcement of the indie focused 'Playstation Loves Devs' lineup, I was elated to see Mercenary Kings, a title that was Kickstarted late last year following the Canadian studios' previous project, Wizorb. The project (Which we backed) got our attention thanks to it's Metal Slug-esque gameplay, visualized by the amazing Aussie pixel god Paul Robertson.

E3 2013 Indie Showcase: Ray's The Dead By Ragtag Studios

Similar to the story of the devs behind Switchblade Monkeys' Secret Ponchos, Ragtag Studios was founded by a group of veteran developers with a need to pursue their own creative ambitions. Founded by Matt Carter, Chris Cobb and Shawn Halves, the Chicago based studio had previously been developing IOS games before moving on to their first indie console undertaking: the humorously named Ray's The Dead. While the project was initially Kickstarted, the plug was mysteriously pulled towards the end of May with news of an upcoming announcement as their reasoning: Becoming part of the Playstation 4 indie initative.

E3 2013 Indie Showcase - Tower Of Guns By Terrible Posture Games

Finally shown at E3's Indiecade this year, Tower Of Guns is an incoming indie first person shooter effort being developed by a one man army, and that army is called Joe Mirabello. Despite being early on in development, the title is following a Minecraft style development cycle, offering early adopters a chance to play the game in it's early state and be an integral part of it's evolution.

The fast paced twitch shooter found it's gameplay hook by adding elements of roguelikes like FTL and Binding Of Isaac to create a hybrid title with an emphasis on replayability. With a plan to have fully randomized enemies, bosses, power ups, items, weapons and layouts on every playthrough, Mirabello's plan is to deliver an entirely new experience with every playthrough, mixed with emulating an old school shooter experience present in the bygone days of Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament. This title has crazy potential, and for the cheap price of $5 you can get into the 'Wear A Hard Hat' ongoing development version of the title. We're looking forward to seeing this one evolve.

E3 2013 Indie Showcase: TowerFall

E3 was pure insanity this year, with reveals of future AAA blockbusters, the start of a new console war and more expo goers than I have ever seen at E3. Even with the madness of it all, the more games we played (and by played I mean mostly watched) the more we felt it right to start focusing on the quieter side of E3, the indie games.

With the strong focus on indie games by the likes of Sony, it became increasingly obvious how important they were for the growth of the industry in the coming years. To focus on the lesser known titles of E3, I'm happy to present Awesome Robo's E3 2013 Indie Showcase, an upcoming set of posts focusing on the independent side of E3. To kick things off, I'd like to spend a bit of time with one of the hidden gems of E3, TowerFall, an indie multiplayer fighting game with an awesome twist.

Shinji Mikami's Evil Within Is A True Return To Form

No matter which way you spin things, Resident Evil 4 was Capcom's last true survival horror entry, redefining the genre for a new generation. While games like the first Dead Space offered a return to true survival horror, the market seemed to shift towards a more action-oriented style of game (or so publishers claimed) pushing developers to drop the scary and focus on the pew-pew. The niche for survival horror remained and while it seemed that only indies were willing to truly touch the genre, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami is looking to return to what cemented him as an all-star game designer.

Wolfenstein - The New Order Delivers Beautiful Visuals And Retro Gameplay

During our time at the Bethesda booth today, we had a chance to get our hands (And eyes) on the newest Wolfenstein : The New Order, a title attempting to reconnect to it's roots from the original DOS title. Taking place in an alternate reality in which Nazi forces actually won, the game stars the original protagonist with the slightly laughable name: Captain 'B.J.' Blazkowicz and his quest to wipe out the global rule of the regime in an impossible counter offensive. Featuring completely new takes on classic Wolfenstein characters, this new iteration distances itself from the recent 2009 Wolfenstein reboot with a slightly more campy spin on the franchise, more in line with the original.

The incredibly unsettling 'Coffee moment.'

One of the best moments in the presentation came in the form of a scripted interaction in which a very creepy senior Nazi official and her boytoy 'Bubi' intercept you on a Nazi train and question whether you're truly Aryan in a very tense exchange. That particular scene truly wowed us, showing off the raw power of next gen consoles in terms of in-engine emotive power with these characters, who were incredibly believable and expressive, asserting their power over you in a moment of sheer helplessness.

Dragon's Crown Unveils A Slew Of New Features

We had a chance to get some hands on time with Vanillaware's Dragon's Crown, bearing the signature art style of George Kamitani (Odin's Sphere), and came out of the experience even more excited, knowing that this game will be excellent. While we initially thought that the title would be a more straightforward beat em up, our hands on time revealed an incredible amount of depth to the gameplay experience, including dungeons with multiple paths, loot appraising, mounts, customizable weapons and armor and more.

Trailers, and especially screenshots of this game do not do it justice..The game is an absolutely beautiful painting in motion, channeling the watercolor aesthetic that Kamitani has established as the Vanillaware house style. I tried out the Fighter class, and found the gameplay to be tightly polished and responsive in a 4 player coop match through a dungeon crawl to take out a wyvern. One of the coolest aspect came in the form of a thief who accompanies throughout your quests and gathers up unappraised (Unidentified loot like in Diablo) and upon finishing your mission offers you a chance to appraise these items for a fee, with the chance of unlocking some truly rare items. While interviewing Atlus employees we also asked about the familiar sounding score, and were amazed to find out that the composers: Most notably Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata were the same composers behind the beautiful scores of games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII before resigning from Square. Check out a full breakdown of the classes, story and features after the break.

Killer Is Dead: Suda51's Upcoming Masterpiece

There are few game developers that get me as excited as Suda51/Grasshopper Manufacture, and with the upcoming release of Killer Is Dead, I made certain to make it one of the first games to get my hands on during E3. A substance of pure style oozes from every corner and with an evolution of the studio's traditional style of combat, Grasshopper Manufacture may have finally stumbled upon perfection.

I don't want to go too overboard with praise, but the time I spent with Killer Is Dead absolutely blew my expectations out of the water. When approaching a Suda51 game I generally remind myself that the narrative is the driving force of the game, whereas the gameplay becomes a secondary form of entertainment. It's not that the games aren't fun (in fact Killer7 has some of my favorite gameplay mechanics to date), it's the fact that the writing has so much 'oomf' that it's hard to pay attention to anything else.

As of now, Killer Is Dead has completely changed my approach to a Suda51 title, providing a gameplay experience that is equally as engaging as the game's narrative.

Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain Red Band Trailer (NSFW)

Back in February Kojima hinted that his next project would tackle some truly mature, controversial themes, but even with the release of the new trailer yesterday we were still unsure as to what he was referring to. As Kojima said a short few months ago:

"Over the past 25 years, I have tried to work with the Metal Gear series to try and introduce more mature themes, but really, it hasn't happened yet, compared to movies or books. There's still a long way to go. That's precisely what I want to try and tackle with my next project..

I'm going to be targeting a lot of taboos, a lot of mature themes, that really are quite risky," he admitted. "Honestly, I'm not even sure if I'll be able to release the game! And even if I did release the game, maybe it wouldn't sell, because [the themes would be] just too much. But as a creator, I want to take that risk."

A new trailer was released earlier today that finally put that to rest: Water boarding, child soldiers, torture, kindapping, prison camps reminiscent to Guantanamo bay - The ugly reality of war that we've rarely seen in such a visceral, in your face manner before in this franchise. The code name 'Punished Snake' all makes sense now, referring to the fact that his phantom pain (Narrated during those gruesome scenes) might be the result of torture at the hands of some unknown captor. This trailer is going to be highly controversial and offensive to some, but inevitably we feel that the overall message through this strong imagery is ultimately is anti-war. 

The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past 2 Gets A New Subtitle, Becomes A Link Between Worlds

After the announcement of the new 3DS title from earlier this year, I've been eagerly anticipating returning to the Super NES world. The game looks absolutely fantastic and the mixture of new and old school mechanics really adds a lot of charm. What I find most exciting is seeing the first ever 60 FPS 3DS game, I can't wait to find out if my eyes don't bleed from the 3D.

Bayonetta 2 Manages To Top Itself In Every Way Imaginable On The Wiiu

As one of the Wiiu's exclusives, much to the chagrin of gamers on other platforms, Bayonetta 2 somehow manages to top 'over the top' with an even crazier battle system, quick time events, and even a new look for the infamous witch, putting her more in the 'naughty school teacher' camp, dare I say it. Even though this title stands out like a sore thumb in the relatively tame Wiiu library, I personally think it's a good thing for Nintendo to have more of these titles on their struggling system. As a wise developer once said: 'You can only have so many Mario Kart sequels.' Embrace the third party, Nintendo.

Monolith Soft's Project X Wiiu Trailer Rekindles Our Interest In RPG's

If you've never played Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii, the game was an absolute ode to an era in which games like Final Fantasy, Suikoden, Persona and similar JRPG titles dominated the gaming landscape, a time in which games like Call Of Duty didn't even exist (Imagine that). Many people argue that it was the best JRPG title to come out in years, offering relatable characters, an epic storyline and a very well designed battle system.

The company's history is the most interesting aspect, especially founder Tetsuya Takahashi's vision for a 'Xeno' series dates back to 1998, when Takahashi directed the critically acclaimed Xenogears. Over the course of 13 years Takahashi and his team have attempted to fulfill their wild ambition of a cohesive series but have encountered numerous roadblocks in their path, including the folks at Square deeming Xenogears as 'Too dark and complicated,' to the ill fated destiny of the Xenosaga franchise, cut short during his tenure at Namco/Bandai. While we are as of yet unsure as to the relation of X to Xenoblade Chronicles, there's already enough similarities to safely speculate that this may be the case. If X turns out as good as it looks, I might finally be convinced to take the Wiiu plunge.

Nintendo Announces Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U; Gamers Collectively Lose Their Sh*t

Nintendo may not be having a giant press conference in the same vein as Sony and Microsoft, but they're definitely not sitting this one out. During this morning's E3 edition of Nintendo Direct, the long awaited Super Smash Bros. was finally announced, but this time it would be hitting handhelds along with the Wii U. What does this mean exactly? It means a lot less productivity once this game releases, because god damn was it a long time coming. Not a lot has been announced in terms of new characters, but Nintendo always enjoys trickling them out come launch time. On the bright side, they have released this first character reveal (along with the Animal Crossing reveal in the above trailer):

HOLY F*CKING SH*T MEGAMAN, ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME? I don't think I've ever been so excited for a Smash Bros. character reveal, plus Megaman is getting the love he deserves. If it takes Nintendo to revitalize Megaman, so be it, I don't think another company could do better. No release date has been announced for the Super Smash Bros. but damn am I hyped.

Watch Dogs - A Surpisingly Ambitious Open World Cyberpunk Adventure

Ubisoft's upcoming new open world IP really caught us off guard in terms of it's ambitious scope and many ways to interact with the environment. Inspired by the entire concept of information warfare, a matter reflected in real life recently with controversies like the PRISM initiative, Watch Dogs follows the exploirts of Aiden Pearce and his ability to hack into devices all controlled by his cities centralized operating system.

We witnessed everything from hacking into a guy's webcam to distracting police by causing electronic malfunctions, and it goes even deeper than that with in game augmented reality, MMO aspects similar to summoning help from fellow hackers like in Dark Souls and more. We've seen plenty of open world/sandbox style games over the years, but Watch Dogs is truly trying to push the envelope in terms of how you interact with your environment. A ton of potential in this one for all new gameplay experiences once it launches on all the systems later this years.

Sony Announces Massive Indie Lineup, Jonathan Blow Sheds A Tear

During the Playstation 4's initial reveal, Sony made it pretty damn apparent how important independent developers were to them after bringing indie dev, Jonathan Blow on stage. While this was definitely a strong beginning for Sony's heavy support for independent developers, nothing could have readied us for Sony's megaton announcement earlier today.

After confirming that independent developers would be able to self-publish, Sony proceeded to completely dominate the stage with 9 independent games, all of which will be exclusively launching on Playstation hardware. Sony has embraced the indie developers wholeheartedly showcasing the following titles:

• Transistor
• Ray's the Dead
• Octodad
• Don't Starve
• Outlast
• Mercenary Kings
• Oddworld New & Tastey
• Secret Ponchos
• Galaxz

Honestly, each of these games look absolutely fantastic and I'm excited to throw as much money into these titles as Sony let's me. It's great to see indie devs leading the charge into a generation, and with Sony's acceptance of self-publishing, I have extraordinarily high hopes for the future of video games. 

Square Enix Announces Kingdom Hearts 3 For PS4

As well as the reveal of Final Fantasy Versus XIII XV, Square also dropped the bomb of a title teased for years now: A proper sequel to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, the result of a dream team collaboration between Square and Disney. The franchise has languished as a result of countless spinoffs that ultimately ended up diluting and overly convoluting a decent story that was relatively straight forward.

The initial teaser offers us a glimpse of the series original protagonist, Sora facing a wave of the series' key antagonists: The heartless. The next, proper installment of the series will be released exclusively on the Playstation 4 sometime next year. Following the steps taken with Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and XV, here's to hoping that the folks at Square Enix are once again headed down the right path.

Square Enix Drops Jaws With Surprise Final Fantasy XV Announcement

We were all stunned to learn the true fate of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, a title that many had assumed had fallen prey to development hell. At the PS4 conference jaws dropped when Square dropped this trailer on us with the original pre-intro by Tetsuya Nomura from the original PS4 announce where he apologetically mentioned that they weren't ready to show what they were working on: An epic tease. What followed was an absolutely stunning trailer for an all new game that looks like it will walk away from the sins that it's predecessor committed.

Featuring a much more action oriented gameplay style on first glance, potentially the result of having a good chunk of the Kingdom Hearts team working on the new title, Final Fantasy XV will hopefully turn out to be a step in the right direction for the embattled company. I'm personally just happy to have relatable characters and settings once again. The title will come out as a Playstation 4 launch title at an as of yet undetermined date.