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General gaming

Cover Story: Gearing Up for E3 2012

Posted: 28 May 2012 06:00 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 28 | E3 2012

Gearing Up for E3 2012

Join us as we brace for the year's biggest gaming event!

The video games industry runs on a nice, regular, annual cycle: Each fall (and all through winter) tons of top-tier releases grace store shelves and decimate our bank accounts. And each spring, the industry renews itself in Los Angeles as developers, publisher, and press from around the world converge to the Electronic Entertainment Expo to see what's in store for the next wave of releases.

E3 2012 runs from June 5-7 -- that's next week, in case you hadn't been paying attention. This year's E3 could potentially be one of the most impressive ever; not only will Nintendo be showing off the presumably final revision of and plan for its upcoming Wii U console, there's a good chance Microsoft will have some new hardware to show off, too. And let's not forget the amazing roster of games slated to arrive between this August and next March, almost all of which will be on display to entice gamers and grease the wheels of consumerism.

Sleeping Dogs Muscles In On GTA's Turf

Posted: 28 May 2012 05:58 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 28 | E3 2012

Sleeping Dogs Moves In On GTA's Turf

Cover Story: Four reasons why United Front's open-world game already tops the last GTA.

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ver the past decade, open-world sandbox games have been all the rage. And why not? This style of game presents players with impressively modeled recreations of some of the most important settings in history within the context of a video game. When executed properly, these authentic playgrounds add an extra layer of believability to any story. We've done everything imaginable through an open-world lens, from traipsing across Renaissance Italy in Assassin's Creed II to high-speed cop chases in Grand Theft Auto IV. Now developer United Front Games aims to provide an equally ambitious and complementary experience to those examples with their latest game -- one that matches a foreign locale with fast car chases and urban drama. In Sleeping Dogs, players experience Hong Kong and get a behind-the-scenes look at the gritty world of the Chinese underground, experiencing a tale inspired by hit movies Infernal Affairs and The Departed.

Can it really best the top dogs in the genre? I think so. Despite Rockstar's landmark work, its GTA titles tend to combine cool ideas (see the bank heist in GTA IV, which former 1UP editor Thierry Nguyen often describes as Heat: The Video Game) with janky execution (see driving, hand-to-hand combat, and targeting). Sleeping Dogs aims to improve on the GTA formula, and the effort shows. It was clear to me during a recent hands-on demo that the the developers passionately focused on creating a game with fluid combat, great driving and handling for cars and bikes, and an engaging story that doesn't sit entirely at odds with gameplay. Remember Mr. Bellic's ridiculous attempt to get out of the killing people business in GTA IV by... well, killing people? GTAIV hit its fourth birthday this past April, and a sequel is due by the time it turns five. But before you get excited for Grand Theft Auto V, a game no one has seen neither hide nor hair of since its debut trailer last fall, consider Sleeping Dogs.

The Last of Us: The Half-Life to Uncharted's Quake

Posted: 28 May 2012 05:57 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 28 | E3 2012

The Last of Us: The Half-Life to Uncharted's Quake

Cover Story: Naughty Dog's next project looks very familiar -- yet wholly new as well.

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arly buzz about Naughty Dog's next title, The Last of Us, had me curious to see more of it. The first preview gave off a Dead-Island-trailer-meets-I-Am-Legend kind of vibe; not too surprising, given the studio's cinematic aspirations, but also not much of an indication to how the game would actually play. So, I attended a recent hands-off demo with great interest. I'm not sure what I expecting the game to be, but an Uncharted mod definitely wasn't it.

OK, I admit: "Uncharted mod" is an unfairly supercilious way to describe the game. This is no mere coat of paint atop an existing game. The Last of Us shares much in common with Uncharted, no question about it. Everything from the camera angles to the slick transitions between action and cut scene to the look of the world to the very specific action icons scream "Nathan Drake!" But Drake has no place in this world; his easygoing demeanor and devil-may-care attitude would make for a very short-lived adventure in Last of Us' brutal post-apocalyptic scenario.

E3 Thoughts and Predictions Vol. 1: Nintendo

Posted: 28 May 2012 05:56 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 28 | E3 2012

E3 Thoughts and Predictions Vol. 1: Nintendo

Cover Story: 1UP mulls the possibilities and pitfalls of Nintendo's big June 5 press conference!

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or many people, the highlight of E3 each year isn't the flood of hands-on impressions and videos that emerge from the show floor over the course of the week. Those are great, of course, but the real event comes in the form of the three press conferences that kick off the event: Microsoft's and Sony's the day before the show begins, and Nintendo's in the hours before the doors open. For game fanatics, the press conferences are like Christmas, the Academy Awards, and the Superbowl all rolled into a day's space. New games come to light. Demos of the big fall releases roll. Amazing hardware is unveiled for the first time. Expectations run as high as anticipation, and it's no different here at 1UP... which is why we've put together a rundown of our own hopes and demands for these big three events. We begin today with our thoughts on Nintendo, whose (presumably revamped plan for) Wii U promises to be a highlight of E3 2012. For more on Nintendo's challenges and strategies, check out the May 3 episode of the Games, Dammit! podcast.

What do you want from Nintendo this year? Comment below, or blog about it if you're feeling especially vociferous!
Posted by Shri Krishna

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