The Friday Wrap-Up 6/19/2015

Sure, they official press shows had some excellent announcements this year, but there was a host of spectacular videos and news that got overshadowed by the hypetrain.  Don't miss out on the best of these.

Some great E3 Videos (not shown at press conferences)
There's a host of awesome content that was either found behind closed doors, or just released online exclusively.  Here's a selection of some stuff I found that was cool:

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Once again, Kojima has cut another masterful trailer for what looks to be his magnum opus.  There's some interesting and heady ideas here (not an uncommon theme for this series) about the role that language plays in shaping people.  New Order's "Elegia" sets that perfect 80's tone.

...and if that wasn't enough, we get another awesome extended gameplay demo, showing off tons of new features.  September 1st can't come soon enough.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
A bit of a slow start on this one, but once we get to actual gameplay, it's hard not to get excited about some of the ambitious plans these guys have for Adam Jensen's second outing.  Keep in mind that this is all an alpha and subject to change.  I feel like if SE chopped off the story intro, that this could have been a real boon to be shown at their press conference.  Oh well.

Halo 5: Guardians Warzone mode
After looking at this mode in action, it's pretty clear to see the MOBA influence in this new mode for the Halo franchise.  Adding in AI players to Titanfall managed to work well for that game (also, where was Titanfall 2 this year?), so I'm optimistic that 343 can make it work.

Destiny: The Taken King ViDoc
Bungie continues to be good at putting together the quasi-feature-documentary.  If you wanted some spotlight on the new classes, enemy types, player spaces and gear styles coming up in this major expansion, look no further.

Interesting tidbits from the convention floor

-PS4 will get mod support for Fallout 4 ...eventually

The technical ramifications of getting mods to work on consoles is still sort of blowing my mind, but IGN's interview with Todd Howard helps to reassure me on a few fronts.  While Bethesda is hoping that they'll have to police the mods as little as possible, they're still going to have to act sort of like arbitrators in order to keep objectionable and stolen content off of a much more visible platform.  The timeline also seems sensible as well, give the tools to PC players first to develop content first and then roll out support for consoles.  

-Also, the dog doesn't die

...because they're right, it is pretty much an instant reload.  Still, I wouldn't mind the option of the hardcore survival mode that was in New Vegas.  Guess you can always mod that in after release.

-Distilling how Xbox One emulates the 360
Phil Spencer probably doesn't get enough credit in terms of his involvement and his ability to just straight up explain stuff.  This is all pretty surface level stuff, but it's some interesting insight into how the 360 emulation project for backwards compatibility works, as well as the potential for some speedy expansion to the current white list.

-Turns out Xbox One runs Mass Effect a bit better than 360

Granted, we're talking about some VERY minor performance improvements.  Still it's interesting that we might be surpassing what could be perfect emulation in some cases for a few titles.  Time will tell.  Anything that might shorten those damn elevator rides has my support.

-Polygon got some early details on Dark Souls III

Honestly, I'm just psyched to hear that Miyazaki is going to have a closer involvement with Souls series proper.  The prospect of expanded movesets and Sword Arts to help mix up and diversify combat sounds like the right sort of move and adaptation of some of Bloodborne's mechanics.  Totally worth a read for all the Souls fans out there.