Virtual reality and hot new games at E3 video game conference
The world's biggest video game conference, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), officially kicks off in Los Angeles Tuesday, and two words are destined to take center stage: virtual reality.
"It's gonna be huge this show," said CNET associate editor Dan Graziano.
At the center of the center stage will be Oculus Rift. Facebook-owned Oculus has been teasing techies with prototypes since 2012, and announced last week a partnership with Microsoft what will bring the Rift VR headset to Xbox One games in the first part of 2016.
Oculus will be far from alone. CNET reports that the virtual reality presence at this year's E3 is up more than fourfold since last year's, with 27 exhibitors turning out to show off virtual reality products for PCs, mobile and consoles.
For example, nDreams, a VR-focused game developer and publisher from the UK, has developed an adventure game called "The Assembly" for Oculus Rift (to be played on the PC), Sony's Project Morpheus for PlayStation 4 (due next year) and HTC Vive, a virtual reality collaboration between HTC and Valve (they won't be presenting at E3).
On the hardware side, a Dutch startup called Manus Machina will bring its Manus VR glove. Think of it as a Power Glove for a new generation, wireless via Bluetooth and compatible with Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard.
(And speaking of old school Nintendo, E3 hosted the 25-years-in-the-making Nintendo World Championships over the weekend.)
Of course, more than anything, the gaming expo is about games. Here are trailers for some of the most anticipated titles to be featured on the convention floor:
"Final Fantasy XIV: Dragonsong" (release date: June 23, 2015)
"Batman: Arkham Knight" (release date: June 23, 2015)
"Call of Duty: Black Ops III" (release date: November 6, 2015)
"Halo 5: Guardians" (release date: October 27, 2015)
"Star Wars: Battlefront" (release date: November 17, 2015)
"Fallout 4" (release date: November 10, 2015)