I woke up this morning, the day after the events of the Sony press conference in NYC to announce some specs of the PS4 and another press conference. I wasn’t in attendance as I had other pressing matters, but after reading what seemed like the opinion of every game journalist on the internet I was left feeling dissappointed and relieved at the same time. I, like everyone else, wanted to see a prototype console at the least, but was given a spec sheet and shown what the yet-to-be unveiled system could possibly do. On the flip side, I got some actual work done around the office and home.
Upon waking up this morning, I had a revelation. Not just about the PS4, but about the entire video game console industry. It’s an idea that could change the landscape of video games as we know it, or it could be just noise coming out the side of my of my neck.
The first official day of the madness was Tuesday, the 8th. The show floors (yes, there are multiple floors) opened and the crowds began to fill the convention halls and hotel suites. If any of you out there have been to an anime convention, this si very similar to middle day. If our memory serves us correct, that’s usually a Saturday. The big differences here, outside the lack of anime and overabundance of tech, are that there are many more people in business attire and that nobody smells in a bad way.
So what did we see? Not as much as Monday as we had many meetings with component companies. If that sounds interesting, then click over to Computer Shopper a little later and check out all of the PC building goodness. Otherwise, hit the jump and view some of the interesting things we saw.
Another CES has come and gone and most of us are still in the afterglow of the gadget-y, electronic orgasm that befell Las Vegas last week. We’re were there for the press conferences to see as many of the new products as we could, and to network like we’ve never networked before. Remember kids, no matter what your profession is, networking is the key to getting everything you want.
Instead of breaking it down by category like many other sites have already done, we’re going to do something different. We’ll be breaking down our coverage by day and showing you the awesome gadgets we saw on the days we we were shown.
Day 0 was Monday and the unofficial start of the madness. The show was to kick off the following day, but that didn’t stop companies from having all kinds of showings and conferences. For us the real fun came at night during Pepcom, a show within CES where over 190 exhibitors showed up to give the press a peek at what they’ll have on the show floor during the week.
Hit the jump and after the break we’ll show you the awesome we saw in the 4 hour rush.
It’s that time if year again, where all forms of the press and tech from the farthest flung industries collide in an all-out cacophony of sweet releases and sweeter announcements. It’s that time when you, the reader, can put your feet up (if no one is looking) and partake in the electronic feast that is CES 2013.
Technically, today is Day 0 and the actual show floor hasn’t opened yet, but worry not dear reader! We will be here for the entire week of the show to give you the scoops of the latest, coolest, and just some of the random and interesting things that we’re sure to find here.
We’ve got plenty lined up for the week, so make sure you check back often to see what kind of great gadgets and exciting announcements we’ll be covering. If your appetite is incredibly strong, follow us on twitter, @TheMardukReport and @digispa as we’ll be heading out to a few press conferences and live tweeting from them.
Protip: Sony Press Conference is in 2.5 hours and we’ll be there.
You’ll also want to give a follow to these other folks because they’ll be covering some great stuff:
About 4 years ago, NCSoft announced that they were working on a MMORPG game called Blade & Soul. This wasn’t some run-of-the mill MMO, this was to be a MMO that would have the masses “going gorrilla” with it’s fast-paced action, deep combat, and character designs by the amazingly talented Hyung Tae Kim. Seriously, if you’re not familiar with his work, hit up Google and educate yourself. You’ll be glad that you did.
That was 4 long years ago. Along with that announcement, a trailer (of epic proportions) was released and nary a word was mentioned after that. That all changed a few days ago when NCsoft launched the English language version of the Blade & Soul site. Information is scarce right now, but the game does look like it’s using some form of the Unreal engine, most likely Unreal 3.
Smell that? That’s the scent of ass-whipping being handed out in real-time.
What we do know is that if the game-play from some of the trailers actually translate to the final game, then this is going to be an MMO for the history books. NCsoft is really playing up the action and more specifically, the combos of each class. There are 6 classes: Destroyer, Blademaster, Summoner, Kung-Fu Master, Force Master, and Assassain, and all are extremely deadly. We noticed that the combos shown off in the game-play trailer aren’t quite as fantastic as some of the pre-choreographed fight, but they were still very impressive (and acrobatic).
Like we said, details are practically nonexistant right now, so pricing and timing are very much up in the air. Based on what we know of NCsoft’s other major MMO’s, Aion and Guild Wars, Blade & Soul can either be a Free-to-Play game or pay for the physical game and there won’t be a subscription fee. While we are always fans of free, we have the distinct feeling that this will be a free subscription game only. We’re not complainingg though.
For more info on the 4 races, character classes, and the like head over to http://us.bladeandsoul.com/en/ and poke around. We’ll leave you with the official trailer released a few days ago.
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