Of E3, Battlefield 4 and consoles...

The Midaged Gamer Report for 6-14-2013

This Week:

What else? E3 news and some other stuff.

So, have you had enough of all the live streaming and relentless fanfare from this week's E3? 

After all the dust has settled what do we know that we didn't a week ago?

Well, The Xbox1 will cost you $500 and the PS4 will be $100 less than that. 

Which, other than their used games policy, was the only real burning question left in the mind of E3 attendees.  The rest is just filler after that.

We also know that Sony is taking a more consumer friendly route when it comes to used games meaning you can give your physical media to somebody else and it just works.  This differs from the confusing vagaries of the  onetime transfer policy of Microsoft.  At least we know that the price of triple-A console titles will stay

at the $60 price point.  Both Microsoft and Sony have confirmed it.  Not that it's a reasonable price point but at least it isn't getting worse, yet.

The Oculus Rift made an appearance and instead of everybody complaining about motion sickness, they were raving about a game demo. Eve-VR is a space battle game that takes full advantage of the VR headgear allowing journalists to focus on gaming instead of their supply of Dramamine.  Along with the demos came a rumor that the PS4 may support the Oculus Rift.  That rumor started when someone found out that developer of Eve-VR, CCP, has been working closely with Sony recently.  Considering CCP's game was chosen to show off the VR gaming headgear, it wouldn't be an unreasonable assumption.

So what about Battlefield 4?  Well there was "Pre-Alpha" gameplay at E3.  The game looked good but not quite ready for primetime meaning all the 12 year olds in the forums were already complaining about glitches.  Damage effects and destructible environments helped make the most of the experience with live action looking as good as BF3's cut scenes.  Check out replays of the live game stream here.

To stir up the hype a bit more EA decided to let loose with an unlock code for current owners of BF3.  The E3 special unlock code "BF3E3" will open up the "Close Quarters" multiplayer map.  One last hurrah for this dying edition of the franchise.  Check out EA's Origin site and you're likely to find BF3 Premium for half price. 

Be sure to check out the links above.  After all, those guys were there and I wasn't...