E3 2013 Press Event Schedule

It’s that time again, E3 2013 is just around the corner, and I thought it would be nice to have a handy schedule that you can come to for some nice quick easy access to see when all the good stuff is happening. So, with out further ado, here is your press event schedule for E3 2013, in Atlantic time!

Keep an eye on NovaGamer.ca, as well as our Facebook and Twitter feeds to catch live reactions and news straight from the pressers if you can’t watch them yourself!

Sunday, June 9:

2 PM – Call of Duty: Ghosts

Monday, June 10:

1:30 PM – Microsoft Press Conference

5 PM – EA Press Conference

7 PM – Ubisoft Press Conference

10 PM – Sony Press Conference

Tuesday, June 11:

11 AM – Nintendo Direct E3 Presentation

There you have it! It’s going to be a huge show this year and can’t wait to see what surprises Microsoft and Sony have up their sleeves!

What are you most looking forward to this year? Let us know in the comments below!

Nintendo Not Holding Press Conference At E3 2013

Nintendo has officially announced there will be no traditional press conference held at this years E3. Instead they plan on having multiple separate events that will focus on their software line up. If you’ve been following previous Nintendo Direct videos, this might lessen the surprise. Multiple big titles have been announced, including new Zelda titles, Mario & Luigi titles (including Mario Kart), plus more. What more do they have?

With the new hardware already out and multiple big name games announced, it makes sense for Nintendo to sit back, save some money, and let Sony and Microsoft battle it out. The focus will be on Microsoft and Sony since they have yet to launch their new consoles.

Don’t be mistaken though, Nintendo will still be present at E3 this year, as promised earlier in the year to show off some of the new titles announced.

Here is an official statement from Nintendo of America’s senior director of corporate communications, Charlie Scibetta on the plans leading up to E3 and at E3.

“As you’ve already seen, a lot of news about Nintendo games and services that traditionally would be held until E3 is being delivered this year through Nintendo Directs, and various press events. This approach will continue between now and E3. No matter where you are in the world, you’ll be fully informed. We look forward to continuing to provide you with Nintendo news and content in ways you haven’t before experienced. Beyond the news that will be communicated through Nintendo Direct videos in the run up to E3, at the show itself we’re hosting two smaller events on Tuesday morning before the LACC opens instead of just our traditional one event. A media event and a partner presentation will both occur that morning. While the audiences will be different between the two events, both will occur on the Tuesday morning of E3 (June 11) which is the date and time period the public has come to expect for Nintendo to deliver E3 news.

At the Nokia theater we’ll meet with business partners (retailers, publishers, analysts, etc.) from the NOA territory and discuss our plans for driving the business and providing tailored information that this group finds useful to their operations. Nintendo has done these same type of business meetings at past E3 shows, but has not in the past few years. This year we are returning to that business partner meeting format. New this year at our booth in the LACC, prior to the show opening, we’ll invite a small group of media to play our games. We will have a strong line-up of beloved franchise experiences available for immediate hands-on play. We are continuing to consider exciting new ways to bring the news of our games and information directly to the players at home during the E3 timeframe, and will have more to say about that at a later date.”

Interesting times for Nintendo. I sure do hope they have a great showing at E3!

Introducing Supernova Cast! (Our First Podcast!)

This is the first of hopefully many podcasts to come. We hope you have as much fun listening to it as we did making it! In the first ever episode of Supernova Cast the NovaGamer crew talks about what we’re currently playing and our thoughts on the games. Also we touch on some DLC news relating to Farcry 3 and Black Ops 2, and we also put our 2 cents in about the new installment of the Batman Arkham franchise.

If you enjoy our banter please share our voices over facebook and twitter and feel free to download the podcast and listen to us on the go.

Internet, do your thing.

Second Chance Gaming: Transformer’s War for Cybertron

Second Chance Gaming is a segment were we talk about the games that maybe we just didn’t give a far shake to the first time around. Games that we only played for 30 minutes to an hour and sat on the self until one day we got bored and thought that they deserved a 2nd look.

I bought Transformer’s: War for Cybertron back when Blockbuster closed down shop about a year and a half ago along with about 8 other games mainly because I’m a sucker for video game deals, but I digest… I put the disc in and played about half the first mission on my 22 inch Acer monitor and after hearing all the hype from my Transformer loving friend Brenden (aka a “Tranny”), I was disappointed. Part of it was do to over hype and part was due to playing on an inferior screen and settings.

A few days ago I decided to give the game a second chance, only this time I couldn’t bring myself to put the controller down. I just finished playing this game on my 50″ plasma with 5.1A  surround and let me tell you I couldn’t put this baby down. the single player was great and I thought it was genius how they had you play the Decepticon campaign first and then the Autobot campaign second. I had a blast all the way through the single player experience but I was also surprise when I went online afterwards.

If I had to describe Transformers: War for Cybertron’s online aspect I would say, take Twisted Metal, put it online, and make it Transformers. The online is fun and it is one of those rare online games you can enjoy while playing on your own.

Recommendation: If you are a Transformers fan and a gamer this is a must have, Do yourself a favor get to your nearest EB Games and pick this bad boy up, you wont regret it.

Best Used Price: $24.99 EB Games (PS3 & XBOX 360)
Best New Price: $29.99 EB Games (PC, PS3, & XBOX 360)

Are there any games out there that you didn’t care for the first time your tried them only to realize you judged the game far to quickly?  What game was it? Post in the comments below.

Assassin’s Creed 3 Review – Is It Revolutionary?

Assassin’s Creed 3
Ubisoft

X360, PS3 – October 30th, 2012
WiiU – November 13th, 2012
PC – November 20th, 2012

The year is 2012 and on December 21^st a catastrophic solar flare will shoot outward from the sun destroying all life on earth. That is unless you, Desmond Miles can unravel the secrets left behind by an ancient civilization that fought, but ultimately fell victim to the same fate that now faces the human race.

These beings from the prior civilization left clues and information for Desmond to find through re-enacting the lives of his ancestors. With the aid of your fellow modern day band of Assassin’s, you are able to relive the memories of these ancestors through a machine called the Animus. The Animus allows Desmond to access his ancestor’s memories through his DNA. Trust me, the science checks out.

In the first Assassin’s Creed (AC) we relived the life of Altair and were able to explore the cities of Acre, Jerusalem, and Damascus during the Crusades period.  We then jumped forward to the renaissance era with Assassin’s Creed 2. In AC2, Brotherhood, and Revelations we relived the life of Ezio climbing, running and killing our way across great cities such as Florence, Rome, Constantinople, and Venice. Finally, in Assassin’s Creed 3, you will enter the Animus and relive the events of America’s final colonial years through your Native American ancestor Connor. Who’s ready for a revolution?

Back to the Animus Desmond.

This time around you will be reliving the memories of Desmond’s Native American ancestor Connor. You will see Connor grow from a young carefree boy to a quick tempered man with a dark past. After some troubling events involving your tribe you plea to the tribe leader to fight and defend your land from the ever expanding Europeans and Colonists. You are unable to convince your leader to fight but she grants you release from the tribes land. She then directs you to a house so you may be trained in ways that might help you shape the future of your people. Trained in the way of the assassin.

Assassin’s Creed 3 takes place in 2 of the most iconic cities in America, Boston and New York. You will also get to explore the vast and very much alive frontier. Now since the game takes place about 250 years ago, don’t expect to recognize much. That being said the new AnvilNext engine that AC3 uses makes it impossible not to walk around and bask in 17th century America. The people are alive and bustling around the city while the wildlife in the frontier can be both majestic and dangerous. Since you are playing Connor over a span of many years you will also experience seasonal changes in AC3. Each season does look distinctively different and immerses you more into the world.

The first 3 hours the game has you pretty much on rails as it takes about that long for you to begin playing Connor as an assassin (avoiding spoilers). After those first few hours your finally set loose to play the game as you see fit. There is a ton to do in AC3, you can hunt, trade, build your homestead, upgrade your ship, engage in a naval battle, collect pages, and of course, assassinate people. That being said, you may have a hard time caring about the optional stuff unless you’re a true completionist. While a lot of the extra content is good, the game does a poor job explaining what you can do in the world and how it will benefit you. For example, it would be very easy for a newcomer of the series to miss that you could recruit a team of assassins, level them up, and have them aid you.

The game’s story, while shorter than some other AC titles is well pieced together, and will keep you interested throughout the game. While most of the game is spent in the Animus as Connor, they have brought back a few Desmond story missions. This time you won’t mind playing Desmond though as it is almost as fun as playing Connor. If you were a fan of the story in any of the previous games you should enjoy the plot as Ubisoft doesn’t change their model for AC3 very much. The Animus based “Connor story” wraps up well and is satisfying. The modern day Desmond story leaves it anything but wrapped up, no doubt allowing for DLC and more games down the road. As I said, typical Assassin’s Creed.

The gameplay and combat is fast and rewarding as it was in the previous titles. There are a lot of weapons to experiment with and tons of different kill animations. In this the game improves on its already tried and true formula. However, AC3 is not without its problems. The game has more than its fair share of graphical glitches. From your weapons turning invisible, to your character not leaping a crate as he should in a chase sequence, to the good old Brit in a rock, it’s buggy! This is the first game built on the AnvilNext engine so some bumps in the road are expected. But technology is like a sports referee, they’ve done the best job when they’re not noticed. When glitches affect gameplay, it hinders the experience and is a constant reminder that you’re playing a game.

Viewpoints have always been a staple in the series, but in AC3 the viewpoints are some of the most generic yet. A prime example is while exploring the frontier you will climb the exact same large tree about 10 times. Not only that, but once you reach the top and look for a pile of brush to do a leap of faith into, you can’t find it because of the foliage around you. Instead you will find yourself making a blind 50/50 attempt each time and either jump the right direction or just kill yourself like an idiot.

The new game engine really shines during naval combat. Ubisoft hyped up the naval combat something fierce before the release of AC3, and I can see why. The sea battles are AMAZING! From the many weather conditions to the different kinds of ships you battle to different bonus objectives, shooting cannonballs has never been this much fun. I was very disappointed that there was no multiplayer mode for naval battles. Imagine you and 3 of your friends fighting another group of 4 ships in a 4v4 mode. Perhaps a free for all game type with up to 8 players. Maybe even a Coop wave based survival mode where the British send larger and larger waves of ships at you and your friends until finally you’re sunk. Sigh… All I can do is hope for DLC.

Speaking of multiplayer, the Assassin’s Creed series manages to keep its multiplayer experience different from others with its free-for-all assassination mode. As with the previous AC games as you sneak around trying to eliminate your targets, whilst attempting to evade detection from the other players in the match. This game type is thrilling and if you play it properly, using stealth to kill, the game rewards you handsomely in your score. Ubisoft did add a new mode to the multiplayer in AC3. The Wolfpack mode sees up to 4 players kill a certain number of targets before time runs out in order to make it to the next sequence. If your time runs out you’re done. This new mode is rather boring and doesn’t showcase stealthy assassinations which is why we love the Assassin’s Creed games.

Assassin’s Creed 3 may take place during the American Revolution, but it’s not revolution for the series. That being said, this is a must have for any fan of the series, and is a great single player romp for players looking for those satisfying kills and assassination gameplay. The game improves slightly on all fronts of that of its predecessors with better story, gameplay, and visuals. However the lack of direction for the optional missions, loads of graphical glitches, and no multiplayer naval battle modes, is what holds AC3 from perfection.

Editors Note: This review copy was purchased with my own funds.

“Surprise” Black Ops 2 Live Action Trailer Feat. RDJ

Today Activision released a live action trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The trailer (that features a Mr. Robert Downey Jr. I might add) will air tonight during Monday Night Football. However if you’re not a football fan, or you just need your CoD fix RIGHT NOW then check it out below!


Black Ops 2 releases for PC, PS3, and XBOX 360 on November 13, 2012 and will also be a launch title for the Wii U on November 18th.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops II Gets Free Elite Service

 

 

Activision has announced today that the Call Of Duty Elite service for Black Ops II will be free for players. The service is to include all sorts of stats, zombie leaderboards, ways to connect with friends and more. No cost will be associated with anyone who has purchased Black Ops 2. There will still be a subscription needed for players using Modern Warfare 3.

“We’ve learned a lot in our first year of Call of Duty Elite, and we’re very proud that we over delivered on our commitment of playable content to our premium members,” said Activision Publishing CEO,Eric Hirshberg. “What we have realized is that several of the Call of Duty Elite services which are currently only available to our premium members for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 are things that would further unite, engage and delight our player community. So we are going to make them free for Call of Duty: Black Ops II.” Further noted in the release were some of the new features coming to Black Ops II.

• Player HQ — Track Call of Duty: Black Ops II performance with rich game statistics, including enhanced match information such as heat maps and recent match data; track challenges and extensively modify your classes like never before using Treyarch’s new Pick 10 Create-a-Class system.
• Clan HQ — Join an existing clan or start your own, invite friends and then take part in Call of Duty: Black Ops II clan competitions with cool digital prizing.
• Zombies Support — For the millions of Zombies fans out there, now you can track your Zombies personal statistics and compare it to other players’ around the world.
• Call of Duty Elite TV — Launching with tablet support with Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the new Call of Duty Elite TV will deliver a renewed community focus featuring developer tips and strategy programming, custom class overviews and more.
• Social Sharing and Notifications — With Call of Duty Elite‘s new notification system, you can stay updated with what is going on in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, as well as communicate directly with your clan.

It was also noted that Black Ops II players will be able to purchase future map packs either as a season pass, which will set you back $49.95 (4000 MSP, which will net you 4 pieces of content. Or you’ll be able to get the DLC individually for $15.00 (1200 MSP).

Not too shabby if you’re a Call Of Duty fan. Actually kind of surprising they are not charging you for this as it seemed to be quite a success for them with Modern Warfare 3. Oh well, I’m not complaining. Just another reason to be excited for Black Ops II when it hits shelves on November 13, 2012. With the Wii U version to follow on November 18, 2012.

Double Douse of AC3 News. Season Pass, An Assassin’s Journey Trailer

A PlayStation Store update has confirmed that a season pass will indeed be available for Assassin’s Creed 3.  Now while this is new to the Assassin’s Creed franchise it is something that gamers are starting to become accustom too.  The price of the season pass has not been revealed yet, but since the digital download “Gold Edition” will be available on the PlayStation Store for $89.99, we figure the price of the season pass will be priced around $30.

Now if that didn’t exactly hype you up for AC3 this just might. Ubisoft has released a new trailer that sets up Connor’s story and shows off just how pretty of a game AC3 is. Take a look.

Assassin’s Creed 3 releases on October 30th for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and will be a launch title with the Wii U on November 18th. The PC version is slated for November 20th.  Will you be picking AC3 up on release day?

Wii U Release Date & Pricing Announced

Today Nintendo announced that the Wii U will be launching in North America on November 18, starting at $299.99 USD.  The console will come in two flavors, the first being a Basic console which will include a white, 8GB Wii U console, gamepad, power cords, sensor bar, and a HDMI cable. The next available bundle will be dubbed the Deluxe Edition. The Deluxe Edition will set you back $349.99 USD, and will come with everything the Basic console comes with, in black, and a upgrade to a 32GB console. Also included will be charging cradles, and a copy of Nintendoland. If that’s not enough, the Deluxe will also include access to the Deluxe Digital Promotion which will let online shoppers earn rebates for downloadable Wii U titles.

Another big announcement today was that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, will be coming to the Wii U console. Seems they are trying very hard to get big third party support now that they are finally in the HD era. Welcome Nintendo.