The 2012 E3 Convention in Los Angeles is a major event in the gaming industry, and most major publishers and developers take the opportunity to show off their latest innovations to a crowd of more than 40,000 attendees. While this event is most often associated with the console makers (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo), both large and small computer game designers maintain a presence at the show and make big announcements.
Valve is likely the biggest developer in the PC gaming industry that will show up to the E3 Convention. While many fans were likely hoping for an announcement surrounding Half-Life 3, Valve announced early on that it would not be happening this year. Instead, they will bring DOTA 2 for fans to play, and they announced that Counterstrike: Global Offensive will be released August 21st for $15.
Epic Games has also announced that Unreal Engine 4 will be revealed on June 7th. While there probably won’t be anything playable on it yet, there will likely be a strong tech demo showing off its capabilities. Consoles have never really been able to keep up with the graphics of high-end PC games, which means the new games developed on this engine will look much better on gaming computers.
During the EA Press Conference on Jun 4th, they announced two new takes on the classic game SimCity. This was actually a two part announcement. One was for the PC game that can be played either online or off, with deep simulation features that require serious processing power, and then SimCity Social, a Facebook app that will compete directly with the popular “Ville” games on that platform.
While the console versions of popular First Person Shooters take center stage at the event, most of these games, including Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Medal of Honor:Warfighter will also see PC releases. The PC has traditionally been the home for competitive play on these types of games because of the precision controls, higher frame rate, and better graphics that are possible on a high-end CPU.
The MMORPG industry has also had some important announcements, with some large updates schedules for the very popular Star Wars: The Old Republic and there is a lot of speculation about whether or not the Elder Scrolls MMO will announce any major developments.
PC games don’t often take center stage at E3, but each year there are some major games that are announced, and this year is no different. There are new games that are targeted at both the hardcore and casual gaming markets, and gamers will have a lot of new information to consider.