A Fairly Topical Matter- E3 2018 Conference Round-up
I may not play as many new video games as I used to but there's still something that draws me back to E3. It used to be the excitement but year after year, that fades and I'm left with pure cynicism. Still, angry cynicism can be fun to read so enjoy me breaking down seven conferences over four days, followed by me breaking down and going back to my mini SNES.
Saturday:
EA
First up was EA, the people's punching bag and after massive controversy with Star Wars Battlefront 2, this was the time for them to bounce back! Except they didn't. They were a deflated ball that collapsed as soon as it hit the ground. It was a poor start when we start with a lot of chat from the host who seems nice enough but is clearly being used as a corporate mouthpiece. Anyway, she gets off stage and we see Battlefield 5, by which I mean we don't actually see much of it, we're just told stuff. Obviously, there's the biggest buzzword of the show with "no lootboxes" as EA try and show that they're not scumbags but there's still definitely micro transactions in the game. Still, there were two things of note talked about. First, destruction is back, which is cool as that's always what made Battlefield stand out to me years ago. Hell, it's what made the name of the Frostbite engine and the reason I laugh whenever that engine powers something like FIFA. There was bigger news than that though as Battlefield is getting a Battle Royale mode! Why?! The developers didn't hang around after that, they showed a slither of "gameplay" and crawled offstage.
The conference took a huge dip here as we got into SPORTS! MY FAVOURITE! Somehow, FIFA got Hans Zimmer for the trailer music but they also have the Champions League so now you can play football against slightly different teams. Great. There was also bragging about how it's a whole new experience which I don't believe for a second but there's World Cup stuff so obviously all is forgiven. At this point, CEO Andrew Wilson turns up on stage and reminds me why I hate his sleazy guts. He's here to talk about Origin Access Premier which seems to be a subscription service of some kind but he mentions money and salivates a little so I'm creeped out. This leads into the Star Wars section where one developer reveals the name of their Star Wars game and that's meant to be enough. It'll also apparently be out for winter next year (in time for the next Star Wars film) but don't expect it to make that deadline. The smell of something sickening started to come through the screen at this point so I knew Battlefront 2 was coming and here it is, that shambling corpse. They're trying to move on and apologise which is fair but I wish they hadn't shown their face and saying "We didn't quite get it right" is the understatement of the show.
We reach the highlight of the conference which is the indie game section. I never played the first Unravel but the nervous developer introducing it warmed my heart and seeing him back on stage to introduce the second one was joyous. Plus, even having not played the first game, I can see there are genuine additions and evolutions made to the game which not a single one of the other games at the conference had. There's yet another excited indie dev after this teasing a game called Sea of Solitude which seems like a kafka-esque story with charming stylised graphics. The joy fades instantly with more sports, this time a section about esports in sports games. Still, I treated myself to some Snaps after this and they made me happy, just in time for the mobile game section. EA showed a bland RTS mobile game but then revealed it was a Command and Conquer game which, even with my limited knowledge of that franchise, I can tell is an insult to it. Finally, the big finale; Anthem. I went in not caring and the artificial Q and A didn't help but in fairness, the gameplay trailer seemed cool, if a little Destiny-esque. That said, we don't really know much about how the game functions and how the singleplayer and multiplayer actually mix together which is pretty much the crux of the game. It could have been a worse conference but it really could have been so much better.
Sunday:
Microsoft
Day 2 rolls around and Microsoft come in with a really strong conference. It opens with a trailer for a new Halo called Halo: Infinite but that tells us nothing so I'm not crazy on it. Phil Spencer then waltzes on stage and promises "50 games. 18 exclusives. 15 world premieres" and while I rolled my eyes then, he did actually deliver. Straight after that was a trailer for Ori 2 which starts the trend of "seems cool, didn't play the first one" which due to being a major theme here, I will call "SCDPFO". Following that was a new From Software game and they be the people who make Dark Souls. Every time I revisit Dark Souls, I like it a little bit more and seeing as this game is basically that with Samurai weapons and architecture and more platforming elements, I'm down for it. Everything slowed down a little with some Game Pass discussion but Bethesda came out next with Fallout 76. At first, I was surprised, seeing as their conference is in a few hours but given the minimal amount of anything we really saw, it makes sense. Still, I love that John Denver cover and eagerly await more info. What now? How about a game set in the Life is Strange universe? Well, SCDPFO.
Moving on, Crackdown 3 rises from the dead again and Terry Crews seems to actually be in the game now but no true gameplay was shown. Neir Automota is getting an Xbox One port and it reminds me that I really need to check that game out. Next there's Metro Exodus, which is a definite SCDPFO, capturing some really beautiful looking misery. Speaking of SCDPFO, Kingdom Hearts 3 gets yet another trailer and seems to be giving a lot of attention to the modern Disney films which is alright with me and now I have a really strong desire to play the first two games. However, this excitement was followed by boredom at more Sea of Thieves content. I'm glad they haven't abandoned it but I'm not playing it. Battlefield 5 rears its head for the promised new trailer and... There's maybe ten new seconds of cutscenes. Thanks EA. Getting to a sequel I am oddly excited for though, there was Forza Horizon 4, set here in jolly old Britain! It looks hugely inaccurate in terms of the weather and I doubt I'll be able to cruise around Six Mile Bottom or Whorecum Hole but I remain strangely interested. It headed back to fairly boring territory again with Microsoft bragging about companies they bought but I do think that in about three years when they have more exclusives, this will pay off, instead of giving us another segment on We Happy Few.
PUBG turns up and I almost turn off and weeb fest Tales of Vesperia is shown but back in those simpler times, I didn't realise it would get weeb-ier. After that, The Division 2 wasn't much better and it seems just as generic as the first. Speaking of generic, more Game Pass stuff for a bit. Waking me up is the indie game segment that reminded me how much I love indie games and wish the show could have more of them. Tomb Raider 3 is next and seems neat but I won't rush out to buy it and Session broke my trust by almost being Skate 4. If it's a spiritual successor though, I will forgive it. Some weird fantasy thing called Black Desert pops up next and I don't care but then comes Devil May Cry 5 which is another SCDPFO. Microsoft double teams us with an indie duo next, some more Cuphead stuff (not coming too soon) and then some Zelda-like fox game called Tunic which I already love. Weeb overload finally kicks in with an anime fighting game combining a bunch of the animes like Naruto, Dragon Ball and Death Note. Enjoy it nerds. I however am struck by another SCDPFO in Dying Light 2. It's Mirrors Edge platforming, Dead Island combat and apparently story decisions that really matter. I am pretty excited, unlike for the promise of more Battletoads, although I do have the original on my mini SNES so I might check the original out. My loins exploded at Just Cause 4 though. Sure, Just Cause 3 wasn't quite as good as 2 (how could it be?) but this one has tornadoes and that is exactly the kind of craziness I want in my life. As the show starts to wrap up, we get three new Gears games: one on mobile with them Funko figures, one that's a turn based strategy and then Gears 5 which will probably be fine but I'm not crazy on that franchise. One of the best moments of the show though was when the stream seemed to be hacked and the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 launches. I'll be bummed when I remember it's an RPG but goddamn if this trailer isn't everything I want to see in a cyberpunk world. Overall, a really enjoyable conference but one that I'm not sure had many true exclusives in it. Only time will tell.
Bethesda
At first I was excited for Bethesda. They've got a lot of great franchises behind them and while Microsoft did amazing, I was looking forward to a slightly slower pace, giving the games more time to breathe. Shouldn't have wished for that as it took 12 minutes to actually see any games. Before that, we had an "inspirational" video of the developers of all the games, some dick swinging on that big new stage and a weird performance from Andrew WK. All that meant I was actually excited when Rage 2 popped up, even though it's a SCDPFO. Still, it looks a little like Mad Max and Avalanche Studios are in there so I'm open minded on it. Here though, two of my biggest issues pop up. First, there's way too much cheering with this conference. If every unnecessary clap and whoop wasn't there, the show could have been twenty minutes shorter. Secondly though, there seemed to be a gag in Rage 2 about a stupid item in that game world but then it looked like it was going to be part of some collectors edition. There's another odd collectors edition I'll get to later but don't try and push it away like it's a joke if you're still going to try and sell it to your customers.
We get to patchy game territory next as we touch on the Elder Scrolls card games and MMORPG they're working on. Both are probably good in their genres but they're genres I have zero interest in so we'll move on. Doom Eternal is teased next and from the hour or so of Doom I played, it makes me incredibly excited but we have to wait until Quake Con for more info and hopefully some actual gameplay. Speaking of, Quake Champions turns up next and being a multiplayer only first person shooter, it loses me instantly. Moving into singleplayer FPS territory, there's some DLC and updates for Prey. I didn't play it but I heard good stuff and big free updates to any game a year on is always great. Similarly, there was (what seems to be) new DLC for Wolfenstein announced but it's set in the eighties and has co-op. It sounds great but it'll probably take a while for me to get round to it.
The big guns come out now, as Todd Howard strolls on stage, ready to show a certain game that rhymes with HallShout. First though, he makes a lil joke about how Skyrim has been ported to everything, showing a skit with Keegan Michael-Key and Amazon's Alexa where he basically does single player Dungeons and Dragons. It was fairly funny but a waste of time when we want to see games. Fortunately, Todd didn't waste any more time and he talks us through the brave new world of Fallout 76. Turns out, it is multiplayer but there's plenty in there for singleplayer, although I do want to round up as many mates as possible to play this. There's a lot of overly ambitious promises made but the most interesting one for me was that there are nukes on the map you can launch at other players and completely destroy the environment. Maybe I won't get it right away but I will be paying close attention to it. There's also a collectors edition with a helmet, lol. We then get to the last couple of announcements. Fallout Shelter is coming to (some) consoles and there's a new Elder Scrolls mobile game that could be pretty robust but at the very least, it's free. The penultimate announcement was a new IP called Starfield and as a sci-fi lover, that wormhole that appeared got my nerd boner going for whenever the hell this comes out. Everyone's favourite moment though was the announcement of Elder Scrolls 6. I'm lukewarm on the franchise anyway so it's funny to see the hype brought about at some mountains and a number, not even a subtitle, especially when it'll probably come out around 2021. There were absolutely moments from this conference I liked but it could be a bit of a drag at times. No EA but no Microsoft either.
Monday:
Square Enix 6pm
For their conference, Square Enix pulled a Nintendo and basically just put together a video of all the stuff they have coming up which, joy of joys, was only half an hour long. Considering there weren't even that many games I was excited about going into the conference, it's amazing just how much I really enjoyed it. Still, I'm trying to talk about the conferences so I'll get to actual info now. First off, I'm delighted that Keith David was doing the voiceover, his honey voice was seeping into my ears the whole time and it put me at ease instantly. We open with a game I'm kinda interested in, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I played the 2013 Tomb Raider and enjoyed it but just never got around to Rise of the Tomb Raider so I guess I'm in an odd position. Still, the gameplay looks just as great as it's always been, I imagine I'll really enjoy it when I get around to it and it does make me want to pick up Rise. After this, I remember that it's a conference from a Japanese company with Final Fantasy XV Online. Someone likes that but I don't, neither do I care for the crossover it's having with Monster Hunter World.
Hey, remember that Life is Strange spinoff from the Microsoft conference? We saw more of it and it seems pretty alright. The developers clarified it's in the same universe as Life is Strange but a different story and that it'll be completely free. I may be a cynical man but that's an offer you can't turn down and I'll probably play it now. If you love Dragon Quest, the next few minutes will be perfect for you but I tapped out. That said, it did remind me that I should at least try Dragon Quest sometime soon. A new Platinum Games game was shown and while there was no gameplay, Platinum Games always make good quality stuff and the concept of the Tower of Babylon (as hinted by the title Babylon's Fall) is very interesting to me for some reason. Maybe it'll be good, maybe it'll be bad but we won't really know until there's actual gameplay shown. Before we get to the good stuff, there was also a Switch game called Octopath Traveller. It's a 2D game but with 3D backgrounds and a lot of flair. If I had to compare it to anything, it'd probably be those older 2D Final Fantasy games so if you like that, this is cool? I dunno man, I was waiting for Just Cause 4.
I didn't have to wait much longer because HOT DAMN, that Just Cause 4 looks amazing. The big pitch from the Microsoft show was that there's extreme weather now and they really doubled down on that. Not only we will be facing down tornadoes, but there's also sandstorms and thunderstorms too, in what may be a masterstroke of a mechanic that'll keep the whole game exciting. There were also promises of more advanced AI (exciting), a new physics engine (very promising) and a bigger map (unnecessary but still cool) but the biggest surprise was the gadgets. We were promised way more grapple hook configurations but there are also balloons to strap to shit and use to float around the city. Personally, I can't wait for this game at all and it might make me buy a next-gen console. Before we got to the other big game of the show, we had The Quiet Man which looked like a game version of the film Mute. If you haven't heard of that film, it's because it's bad and no one wants to play a video game of that. With that done though, we can get to Kingdom Hearts 3. The trailer was very similar to the one from Microsofts conference but I'm still on board. We got some slithers of gameplay and the game seems adorably goofy, making me really want to get into the franchise. Some people hated this conference but in the middle of a lot of clutter, Square Enix hit the right notes for me.
Ubisoft
Man oh man, Ubisoft really were Ubisoft this year. You get a good idea of how little they're going to deviate from schedule when it starts with a dance sequence for Just Dance 2019 where the new twist is that they couldn't afford a pop star to sing. It really is just the worst way to start a press conference and transitioning next into Beyond Good and Evil 2 then felt a little confusing. As seems to be the case for every game at E3 this year, I haven't played the original but seeing this trailer (with still zero gameplay) reinforces how little like the first game this seems to be. The big twist however was that fans can get art in the game through HitRecord, a platform started by Joseph Gordon-Levitt which meant JGL ON STAGE!!! Still, getting fans to make the content in your games (which came up one other time) seems like a nice way of phrasing that you couldn't be bothered to make it all yourself. After this though, the fun takes another drop as we get into Rainbow Six: Seige. I have no interest in the game and Ubisoft announcing that they're making a documentary about how it's affected eight members of the community just seems so boring to me. Still, they said Community a lot and hearing that word reminds me of things I'd rather be watching.
At this point the wacky Trials developer comes out. This year the joke was that he knocked over a display stand and it was not that funny. Still, he showed Trials Rising and having not played a new Trials game since Evolution, it grabbed me. The Trials games have relied on gimmicks recently like being futuristic or partnering with Blood Dragon but Rising is getting back to the basics of Evolution and I am all about that. Trials Evolution may be one of my all time favourite games and a new game recapturing that magic is what I need. My excitement plummeted as soon as The Division 2 comes on stage though, reminding me that it's just Destiny in a post-apocalyptic-lite setting, down to the fact they now have raids. Zero interest. We get a new DLC thing for the Mario and Rabbids strategy game which was apparently big enough news to warrant an orchestra coming on stage. Yay, filler. We get close to the low of the show with Skull and Bones, a naval combat game, except we already have both Sea of Thieves and Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. This is a gritty, dour combination of the two that makes me not particularly care at all, with the gameplay looking okay at best. Still, the tagline of "Long Live Piracy" makes me realise how out of touch Ubisoft are. Moving to much weirder territory though, there was Transference, a mysterious looking game from Elijah Wood (yes, that one), starring Macon Blair from Blue Ruin and Green Room. It looks like a psychological thriller with a technological hook and personally, the mystery around it makes me very interested.
StarLink was the low of the show, a game where the whole gimmick is a physical Skylanders-esque ship you can stick stuff onto to effect your in game spaceship. It also looks a little like the Thunderbirds reboot which is an excellent way to get me against you. The one thing that kind of came close to redeeming it was the news that Star Fox will be in the game on Switch. That wasn't redemption for the game though, no, it was the fact that they had Miyamoto at the conference. His smile warms my soul and seeing him reminded me why I'm excited to see what Nintendo have to offer. In stuff that is news to me, For Honour is still being played and has new content. There's a new Chinese army to play as and a Castle Siege mode that sounds fun but I'm not buying the game. We're so close to the good stuff now but we still have to power through The Crew 2 and amazingly, adding more vehicles has made me less interested in the game. With that done though, we get to Assassins Creed Odyssey which was my highlight of the show shockingly. I've never properly played an Assassins Creed game, just bits and pieces, but the setting of Ancient Greece has my inner Classics Nerd squealing. It looks beautiful, there's now proper RPG elements and judging by that tease at the end of the trailer, its embracing mythology. The whole thing has made me realise that I want a game about Classical Epics with The Iliad, The Odyssey, maybe even a cheeky splash of the Aenied if we wanna stretch it but because that'll never happen, I'll happily settle on this. Like Bethesda, a mixed conference with one or two big highs and a couple of massive lows.
Sony
Sony delivered with a real solid press conference this year, despite a couple of real hitches that slowed it down. They opened the conference in what they referred to as a church and don't worry, they made jokes about that which are obviously hysterical. This new location is all in service of a neat transition into an extended demo of The Last of Us Part 2. I never played the original (so this is a major SCDPFO) but from a showing of a game, this is exactly what you want. A cutscene with some cool character moments and a (heavily scripted) slice of gameplay that encapsulates the entire Last of Us experience and promises quality on the same level as the last game. The problem was, the show literally stopped after this so they could move all the guests to the actual venue for the rest of the show, meaning we got stuck with two dudes behind a desk. Still, it could have been pulled off worse as we got a few tidbits of info during the wait, such as a New Game Plus mode for God of War, old maps coming to Black Ops 4 and then some Destiny 2 trailer.
Eventually, everyone was seated in the actual auditorium and we could begin again, this time with a flute performance because WHY? The flute was a precursor to a trailer for Ghost of Tsushima, a game set in I think China which looks like a mix of all sorts of things. There's sword combat, horse riding and a lot of blood. People seem to be very excited about it but I'm entirely lukewarm on the game. Still, I could be convinced otherwise. We move away from these extended demos to some brief trailers of stuff. First is some atmospheric horror game that looks a lot like Quantum Break because it's made by the same people as Quantum Break. Could be good, could be bad, we'll have to see. There's a Resident Evil 2 remake next and apparently it's a complete remake, changing the engine, camera perspective and everything. I'm not big on horror but it looks good at being what it is. One of the weirder trailers we got was for Grover Saves the Universe, a game by Justin Roiland, co-creator of Rick and Morty. It looks like a 3D platformer but with the style and seemingly the humour of Rick and Morty. I remain pretty interested as a fan of platformers and a big fan of Rick and Morty. It was at the end of the show but I'll talk about it quickly now, From Software showed a new game too, called Deracine, that seems interesting but is sadly in VR.
There were three big trailers to finish the conference after all of those. First was Kingdom Hearts 3, appropriately for the third time this show. This trailer focused on Pirates of the Caribbean which I don't love but it's at least a promise that there's going to be a huge amount of variety in the game. Plus, the gameplay for this section does look great. As long as it isn't actually Johnny Depp doing the voice, I'll be very happy. One huge trailer I was surprised to enjoy was Death Stranding. I know just about nothing about this game and after this trailer, I still don't! But that's the charm. I've admired Kojima's work for a while but I'm just not crazy about Metal Gear as a franchise so I've never been able to get into it. With this completely insane looking game though, I'm fully prepared to embrace the world of gaming's equivalent of David Lynch. Finally, there was the new Spider-Man game which really doesn't seem to be hiding the influence of Arkham Asylum anymore, as it borrows combat, array of villains and in this demo, even the prison setting. Still, there are much worse games to steal from and they've also got a webslinging mechanic (obviously) which looks pretty fun but only gameplay will show how good that is. I have a soft spot for Spider-Man anyway so fingers crossed because this looks incredibly promising. All in all, Sony did a great job but some technical difficulties and that big intermission near the start really slowed it down. I do really want a PS4 now though.
Tuesday:
Nintendo
Nintendo arrive last and do their typical Nintendo thing by showing whatever the hell they want but winning the hearts of nerds (including me) with one massive exciting game. It's also worth mentioning that I don't have a Nintendo Switch (yet, planning on it when I find money) and while I do have a 3DS, it's stopped working properly and we didn't even see any games for it this time. This trend started early with some mech game called Daemon X Machina. It had mechs in it and a cell shaded style but the trailer just seemed to cut off before we'd actually seen anything. Alright, great job guys. Next we got Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Didn't play the first one or Xenoblade X and I'm not crazy on JRPGs so probably won't be playing it but weebs will be happy. Head of Nintendo America Reggie Fills-Amie pops up so all those watching along at home can shout "MY BODY IS READY". He drops a couple of hot teases for later in the show and then talks to us about that new Pokemon game. I'm still not sure if it's a real Pokemon game or a Pokemon Go spinoff but I'm not the target audience for this so I'm sure I'll find out eventually without having to buy the game.
I got real excited at this next bit which was A BRAND NEW MARIO PARTY. I love Mario Party, I think it's God's gift to the world and the news that more are coming out is always exciting. It's called Super Mario Party and it being Nintendo, there's some hot gimmicks in there too. You can connect your Switch tablets for minigames and play on them in a really interesting tabletop mode. Explaining it isn't easy so look for the trailer to see that bit but basically, it's more Mario Party, now on the Switch. We were also greeted with a new Fire Emblem game and I've played a few of them before and kinda liked them. They're strategy games and if you like that, you'll like Fire Emblem but now they've added flashy camera angles and some running around outside of battles to talk to your soldiers. If you like Fire Emblem, this is going to be great for you. You know that meme from 30 Rock where Steve Buscemi says "How do you do, fellow kids?". That's how I feel about the Nintendo Switch getting Fortnite. Still, those feelings were soothed by the indie games section. Overcooked 2 is happening (SCDPFO), there was some weird looking multiplayer game called Killer Queen Black and we found out that popular indie game Hollow Knigt and all the DLC for it was coming to Switch today.
By this point, I and most of the other nerds were salivating for Smash Bros and after sitting through one"best of upcoming gaemes" section, our patience was rewarded with a 25 minute section. I won't lie, it was really worth the wait. We start by basically getting teased, as the creative director tells us he's going to talk us through a bunch of the characters that are appearing in the game. As they're slowly and slowly being revealed, we see a bunch of familiar faces from past games. There's Pichu and Wolf and Young Link. And then it clicks. We're getting all the characters from all the Smash Bros games ever made. Sure, there's only two new characters in this game (the genuinely quite exciting additions of Inkling Boy/Girl and Ridley from Metroid) but this is a roster of 65 characters, larger than any Smash Bros game in history. Finally, we can have the dream matchup between Snake, Jigglypuff, PacMan and one of the kids from Splatoon. Apparently the unlock system for characters is going to be much simpler than other games and we're also still getting 8 player battles, both of which are big news. Finally, the other two big things I picked up on were that we can now KO certain assist trophies and that we're also getting a huge collection of stages from all the games, including the specific ones that only the 3DS version of Smash Bros had. Sure, this Smash Bros hasn't made any massive additions or changes to the formula but it's what I want. It's the very best the franchise has to offer and I want it now pls. So yeah, an okay conference but buoyed by one wonderful wonderful showcase.
Conclusion
This has been a funny old E3 and not an amazing one for it. There's been some great games shown off but also, a lot of the conferences were just not that good and when my favourite conference made me want to buy the console made by their competitors, something weird has happened to me, the industry or both. I guess I'll rank them in order of least misery I suffered for them (I realised just now that I did 7 so it's a bonus Top 7) but really, the best thing about this weekend for me was that I started playing A Link to the Past. Highly recommend that btw, aged like a wine.
7. EA
6. Ubisoft
5. Nintendo
4. Bethesda
3. Square Enix
2. Sony
1. Microsoft
Saturday:
EA
First up was EA, the people's punching bag and after massive controversy with Star Wars Battlefront 2, this was the time for them to bounce back! Except they didn't. They were a deflated ball that collapsed as soon as it hit the ground. It was a poor start when we start with a lot of chat from the host who seems nice enough but is clearly being used as a corporate mouthpiece. Anyway, she gets off stage and we see Battlefield 5, by which I mean we don't actually see much of it, we're just told stuff. Obviously, there's the biggest buzzword of the show with "no lootboxes" as EA try and show that they're not scumbags but there's still definitely micro transactions in the game. Still, there were two things of note talked about. First, destruction is back, which is cool as that's always what made Battlefield stand out to me years ago. Hell, it's what made the name of the Frostbite engine and the reason I laugh whenever that engine powers something like FIFA. There was bigger news than that though as Battlefield is getting a Battle Royale mode! Why?! The developers didn't hang around after that, they showed a slither of "gameplay" and crawled offstage.
The conference took a huge dip here as we got into SPORTS! MY FAVOURITE! Somehow, FIFA got Hans Zimmer for the trailer music but they also have the Champions League so now you can play football against slightly different teams. Great. There was also bragging about how it's a whole new experience which I don't believe for a second but there's World Cup stuff so obviously all is forgiven. At this point, CEO Andrew Wilson turns up on stage and reminds me why I hate his sleazy guts. He's here to talk about Origin Access Premier which seems to be a subscription service of some kind but he mentions money and salivates a little so I'm creeped out. This leads into the Star Wars section where one developer reveals the name of their Star Wars game and that's meant to be enough. It'll also apparently be out for winter next year (in time for the next Star Wars film) but don't expect it to make that deadline. The smell of something sickening started to come through the screen at this point so I knew Battlefront 2 was coming and here it is, that shambling corpse. They're trying to move on and apologise which is fair but I wish they hadn't shown their face and saying "We didn't quite get it right" is the understatement of the show.
We reach the highlight of the conference which is the indie game section. I never played the first Unravel but the nervous developer introducing it warmed my heart and seeing him back on stage to introduce the second one was joyous. Plus, even having not played the first game, I can see there are genuine additions and evolutions made to the game which not a single one of the other games at the conference had. There's yet another excited indie dev after this teasing a game called Sea of Solitude which seems like a kafka-esque story with charming stylised graphics. The joy fades instantly with more sports, this time a section about esports in sports games. Still, I treated myself to some Snaps after this and they made me happy, just in time for the mobile game section. EA showed a bland RTS mobile game but then revealed it was a Command and Conquer game which, even with my limited knowledge of that franchise, I can tell is an insult to it. Finally, the big finale; Anthem. I went in not caring and the artificial Q and A didn't help but in fairness, the gameplay trailer seemed cool, if a little Destiny-esque. That said, we don't really know much about how the game functions and how the singleplayer and multiplayer actually mix together which is pretty much the crux of the game. It could have been a worse conference but it really could have been so much better.
Sunday:
Microsoft
Day 2 rolls around and Microsoft come in with a really strong conference. It opens with a trailer for a new Halo called Halo: Infinite but that tells us nothing so I'm not crazy on it. Phil Spencer then waltzes on stage and promises "50 games. 18 exclusives. 15 world premieres" and while I rolled my eyes then, he did actually deliver. Straight after that was a trailer for Ori 2 which starts the trend of "seems cool, didn't play the first one" which due to being a major theme here, I will call "SCDPFO". Following that was a new From Software game and they be the people who make Dark Souls. Every time I revisit Dark Souls, I like it a little bit more and seeing as this game is basically that with Samurai weapons and architecture and more platforming elements, I'm down for it. Everything slowed down a little with some Game Pass discussion but Bethesda came out next with Fallout 76. At first, I was surprised, seeing as their conference is in a few hours but given the minimal amount of anything we really saw, it makes sense. Still, I love that John Denver cover and eagerly await more info. What now? How about a game set in the Life is Strange universe? Well, SCDPFO.
Moving on, Crackdown 3 rises from the dead again and Terry Crews seems to actually be in the game now but no true gameplay was shown. Neir Automota is getting an Xbox One port and it reminds me that I really need to check that game out. Next there's Metro Exodus, which is a definite SCDPFO, capturing some really beautiful looking misery. Speaking of SCDPFO, Kingdom Hearts 3 gets yet another trailer and seems to be giving a lot of attention to the modern Disney films which is alright with me and now I have a really strong desire to play the first two games. However, this excitement was followed by boredom at more Sea of Thieves content. I'm glad they haven't abandoned it but I'm not playing it. Battlefield 5 rears its head for the promised new trailer and... There's maybe ten new seconds of cutscenes. Thanks EA. Getting to a sequel I am oddly excited for though, there was Forza Horizon 4, set here in jolly old Britain! It looks hugely inaccurate in terms of the weather and I doubt I'll be able to cruise around Six Mile Bottom or Whorecum Hole but I remain strangely interested. It headed back to fairly boring territory again with Microsoft bragging about companies they bought but I do think that in about three years when they have more exclusives, this will pay off, instead of giving us another segment on We Happy Few.
PUBG turns up and I almost turn off and weeb fest Tales of Vesperia is shown but back in those simpler times, I didn't realise it would get weeb-ier. After that, The Division 2 wasn't much better and it seems just as generic as the first. Speaking of generic, more Game Pass stuff for a bit. Waking me up is the indie game segment that reminded me how much I love indie games and wish the show could have more of them. Tomb Raider 3 is next and seems neat but I won't rush out to buy it and Session broke my trust by almost being Skate 4. If it's a spiritual successor though, I will forgive it. Some weird fantasy thing called Black Desert pops up next and I don't care but then comes Devil May Cry 5 which is another SCDPFO. Microsoft double teams us with an indie duo next, some more Cuphead stuff (not coming too soon) and then some Zelda-like fox game called Tunic which I already love. Weeb overload finally kicks in with an anime fighting game combining a bunch of the animes like Naruto, Dragon Ball and Death Note. Enjoy it nerds. I however am struck by another SCDPFO in Dying Light 2. It's Mirrors Edge platforming, Dead Island combat and apparently story decisions that really matter. I am pretty excited, unlike for the promise of more Battletoads, although I do have the original on my mini SNES so I might check the original out. My loins exploded at Just Cause 4 though. Sure, Just Cause 3 wasn't quite as good as 2 (how could it be?) but this one has tornadoes and that is exactly the kind of craziness I want in my life. As the show starts to wrap up, we get three new Gears games: one on mobile with them Funko figures, one that's a turn based strategy and then Gears 5 which will probably be fine but I'm not crazy on that franchise. One of the best moments of the show though was when the stream seemed to be hacked and the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 launches. I'll be bummed when I remember it's an RPG but goddamn if this trailer isn't everything I want to see in a cyberpunk world. Overall, a really enjoyable conference but one that I'm not sure had many true exclusives in it. Only time will tell.
Bethesda
At first I was excited for Bethesda. They've got a lot of great franchises behind them and while Microsoft did amazing, I was looking forward to a slightly slower pace, giving the games more time to breathe. Shouldn't have wished for that as it took 12 minutes to actually see any games. Before that, we had an "inspirational" video of the developers of all the games, some dick swinging on that big new stage and a weird performance from Andrew WK. All that meant I was actually excited when Rage 2 popped up, even though it's a SCDPFO. Still, it looks a little like Mad Max and Avalanche Studios are in there so I'm open minded on it. Here though, two of my biggest issues pop up. First, there's way too much cheering with this conference. If every unnecessary clap and whoop wasn't there, the show could have been twenty minutes shorter. Secondly though, there seemed to be a gag in Rage 2 about a stupid item in that game world but then it looked like it was going to be part of some collectors edition. There's another odd collectors edition I'll get to later but don't try and push it away like it's a joke if you're still going to try and sell it to your customers.
We get to patchy game territory next as we touch on the Elder Scrolls card games and MMORPG they're working on. Both are probably good in their genres but they're genres I have zero interest in so we'll move on. Doom Eternal is teased next and from the hour or so of Doom I played, it makes me incredibly excited but we have to wait until Quake Con for more info and hopefully some actual gameplay. Speaking of, Quake Champions turns up next and being a multiplayer only first person shooter, it loses me instantly. Moving into singleplayer FPS territory, there's some DLC and updates for Prey. I didn't play it but I heard good stuff and big free updates to any game a year on is always great. Similarly, there was (what seems to be) new DLC for Wolfenstein announced but it's set in the eighties and has co-op. It sounds great but it'll probably take a while for me to get round to it.
The big guns come out now, as Todd Howard strolls on stage, ready to show a certain game that rhymes with HallShout. First though, he makes a lil joke about how Skyrim has been ported to everything, showing a skit with Keegan Michael-Key and Amazon's Alexa where he basically does single player Dungeons and Dragons. It was fairly funny but a waste of time when we want to see games. Fortunately, Todd didn't waste any more time and he talks us through the brave new world of Fallout 76. Turns out, it is multiplayer but there's plenty in there for singleplayer, although I do want to round up as many mates as possible to play this. There's a lot of overly ambitious promises made but the most interesting one for me was that there are nukes on the map you can launch at other players and completely destroy the environment. Maybe I won't get it right away but I will be paying close attention to it. There's also a collectors edition with a helmet, lol. We then get to the last couple of announcements. Fallout Shelter is coming to (some) consoles and there's a new Elder Scrolls mobile game that could be pretty robust but at the very least, it's free. The penultimate announcement was a new IP called Starfield and as a sci-fi lover, that wormhole that appeared got my nerd boner going for whenever the hell this comes out. Everyone's favourite moment though was the announcement of Elder Scrolls 6. I'm lukewarm on the franchise anyway so it's funny to see the hype brought about at some mountains and a number, not even a subtitle, especially when it'll probably come out around 2021. There were absolutely moments from this conference I liked but it could be a bit of a drag at times. No EA but no Microsoft either.
Monday:
Square Enix 6pm
For their conference, Square Enix pulled a Nintendo and basically just put together a video of all the stuff they have coming up which, joy of joys, was only half an hour long. Considering there weren't even that many games I was excited about going into the conference, it's amazing just how much I really enjoyed it. Still, I'm trying to talk about the conferences so I'll get to actual info now. First off, I'm delighted that Keith David was doing the voiceover, his honey voice was seeping into my ears the whole time and it put me at ease instantly. We open with a game I'm kinda interested in, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I played the 2013 Tomb Raider and enjoyed it but just never got around to Rise of the Tomb Raider so I guess I'm in an odd position. Still, the gameplay looks just as great as it's always been, I imagine I'll really enjoy it when I get around to it and it does make me want to pick up Rise. After this, I remember that it's a conference from a Japanese company with Final Fantasy XV Online. Someone likes that but I don't, neither do I care for the crossover it's having with Monster Hunter World.
Hey, remember that Life is Strange spinoff from the Microsoft conference? We saw more of it and it seems pretty alright. The developers clarified it's in the same universe as Life is Strange but a different story and that it'll be completely free. I may be a cynical man but that's an offer you can't turn down and I'll probably play it now. If you love Dragon Quest, the next few minutes will be perfect for you but I tapped out. That said, it did remind me that I should at least try Dragon Quest sometime soon. A new Platinum Games game was shown and while there was no gameplay, Platinum Games always make good quality stuff and the concept of the Tower of Babylon (as hinted by the title Babylon's Fall) is very interesting to me for some reason. Maybe it'll be good, maybe it'll be bad but we won't really know until there's actual gameplay shown. Before we get to the good stuff, there was also a Switch game called Octopath Traveller. It's a 2D game but with 3D backgrounds and a lot of flair. If I had to compare it to anything, it'd probably be those older 2D Final Fantasy games so if you like that, this is cool? I dunno man, I was waiting for Just Cause 4.
I didn't have to wait much longer because HOT DAMN, that Just Cause 4 looks amazing. The big pitch from the Microsoft show was that there's extreme weather now and they really doubled down on that. Not only we will be facing down tornadoes, but there's also sandstorms and thunderstorms too, in what may be a masterstroke of a mechanic that'll keep the whole game exciting. There were also promises of more advanced AI (exciting), a new physics engine (very promising) and a bigger map (unnecessary but still cool) but the biggest surprise was the gadgets. We were promised way more grapple hook configurations but there are also balloons to strap to shit and use to float around the city. Personally, I can't wait for this game at all and it might make me buy a next-gen console. Before we got to the other big game of the show, we had The Quiet Man which looked like a game version of the film Mute. If you haven't heard of that film, it's because it's bad and no one wants to play a video game of that. With that done though, we can get to Kingdom Hearts 3. The trailer was very similar to the one from Microsofts conference but I'm still on board. We got some slithers of gameplay and the game seems adorably goofy, making me really want to get into the franchise. Some people hated this conference but in the middle of a lot of clutter, Square Enix hit the right notes for me.
Ubisoft
Man oh man, Ubisoft really were Ubisoft this year. You get a good idea of how little they're going to deviate from schedule when it starts with a dance sequence for Just Dance 2019 where the new twist is that they couldn't afford a pop star to sing. It really is just the worst way to start a press conference and transitioning next into Beyond Good and Evil 2 then felt a little confusing. As seems to be the case for every game at E3 this year, I haven't played the original but seeing this trailer (with still zero gameplay) reinforces how little like the first game this seems to be. The big twist however was that fans can get art in the game through HitRecord, a platform started by Joseph Gordon-Levitt which meant JGL ON STAGE!!! Still, getting fans to make the content in your games (which came up one other time) seems like a nice way of phrasing that you couldn't be bothered to make it all yourself. After this though, the fun takes another drop as we get into Rainbow Six: Seige. I have no interest in the game and Ubisoft announcing that they're making a documentary about how it's affected eight members of the community just seems so boring to me. Still, they said Community a lot and hearing that word reminds me of things I'd rather be watching.
At this point the wacky Trials developer comes out. This year the joke was that he knocked over a display stand and it was not that funny. Still, he showed Trials Rising and having not played a new Trials game since Evolution, it grabbed me. The Trials games have relied on gimmicks recently like being futuristic or partnering with Blood Dragon but Rising is getting back to the basics of Evolution and I am all about that. Trials Evolution may be one of my all time favourite games and a new game recapturing that magic is what I need. My excitement plummeted as soon as The Division 2 comes on stage though, reminding me that it's just Destiny in a post-apocalyptic-lite setting, down to the fact they now have raids. Zero interest. We get a new DLC thing for the Mario and Rabbids strategy game which was apparently big enough news to warrant an orchestra coming on stage. Yay, filler. We get close to the low of the show with Skull and Bones, a naval combat game, except we already have both Sea of Thieves and Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag. This is a gritty, dour combination of the two that makes me not particularly care at all, with the gameplay looking okay at best. Still, the tagline of "Long Live Piracy" makes me realise how out of touch Ubisoft are. Moving to much weirder territory though, there was Transference, a mysterious looking game from Elijah Wood (yes, that one), starring Macon Blair from Blue Ruin and Green Room. It looks like a psychological thriller with a technological hook and personally, the mystery around it makes me very interested.
StarLink was the low of the show, a game where the whole gimmick is a physical Skylanders-esque ship you can stick stuff onto to effect your in game spaceship. It also looks a little like the Thunderbirds reboot which is an excellent way to get me against you. The one thing that kind of came close to redeeming it was the news that Star Fox will be in the game on Switch. That wasn't redemption for the game though, no, it was the fact that they had Miyamoto at the conference. His smile warms my soul and seeing him reminded me why I'm excited to see what Nintendo have to offer. In stuff that is news to me, For Honour is still being played and has new content. There's a new Chinese army to play as and a Castle Siege mode that sounds fun but I'm not buying the game. We're so close to the good stuff now but we still have to power through The Crew 2 and amazingly, adding more vehicles has made me less interested in the game. With that done though, we get to Assassins Creed Odyssey which was my highlight of the show shockingly. I've never properly played an Assassins Creed game, just bits and pieces, but the setting of Ancient Greece has my inner Classics Nerd squealing. It looks beautiful, there's now proper RPG elements and judging by that tease at the end of the trailer, its embracing mythology. The whole thing has made me realise that I want a game about Classical Epics with The Iliad, The Odyssey, maybe even a cheeky splash of the Aenied if we wanna stretch it but because that'll never happen, I'll happily settle on this. Like Bethesda, a mixed conference with one or two big highs and a couple of massive lows.
Sony
Sony delivered with a real solid press conference this year, despite a couple of real hitches that slowed it down. They opened the conference in what they referred to as a church and don't worry, they made jokes about that which are obviously hysterical. This new location is all in service of a neat transition into an extended demo of The Last of Us Part 2. I never played the original (so this is a major SCDPFO) but from a showing of a game, this is exactly what you want. A cutscene with some cool character moments and a (heavily scripted) slice of gameplay that encapsulates the entire Last of Us experience and promises quality on the same level as the last game. The problem was, the show literally stopped after this so they could move all the guests to the actual venue for the rest of the show, meaning we got stuck with two dudes behind a desk. Still, it could have been pulled off worse as we got a few tidbits of info during the wait, such as a New Game Plus mode for God of War, old maps coming to Black Ops 4 and then some Destiny 2 trailer.
Eventually, everyone was seated in the actual auditorium and we could begin again, this time with a flute performance because WHY? The flute was a precursor to a trailer for Ghost of Tsushima, a game set in I think China which looks like a mix of all sorts of things. There's sword combat, horse riding and a lot of blood. People seem to be very excited about it but I'm entirely lukewarm on the game. Still, I could be convinced otherwise. We move away from these extended demos to some brief trailers of stuff. First is some atmospheric horror game that looks a lot like Quantum Break because it's made by the same people as Quantum Break. Could be good, could be bad, we'll have to see. There's a Resident Evil 2 remake next and apparently it's a complete remake, changing the engine, camera perspective and everything. I'm not big on horror but it looks good at being what it is. One of the weirder trailers we got was for Grover Saves the Universe, a game by Justin Roiland, co-creator of Rick and Morty. It looks like a 3D platformer but with the style and seemingly the humour of Rick and Morty. I remain pretty interested as a fan of platformers and a big fan of Rick and Morty. It was at the end of the show but I'll talk about it quickly now, From Software showed a new game too, called Deracine, that seems interesting but is sadly in VR.
There were three big trailers to finish the conference after all of those. First was Kingdom Hearts 3, appropriately for the third time this show. This trailer focused on Pirates of the Caribbean which I don't love but it's at least a promise that there's going to be a huge amount of variety in the game. Plus, the gameplay for this section does look great. As long as it isn't actually Johnny Depp doing the voice, I'll be very happy. One huge trailer I was surprised to enjoy was Death Stranding. I know just about nothing about this game and after this trailer, I still don't! But that's the charm. I've admired Kojima's work for a while but I'm just not crazy about Metal Gear as a franchise so I've never been able to get into it. With this completely insane looking game though, I'm fully prepared to embrace the world of gaming's equivalent of David Lynch. Finally, there was the new Spider-Man game which really doesn't seem to be hiding the influence of Arkham Asylum anymore, as it borrows combat, array of villains and in this demo, even the prison setting. Still, there are much worse games to steal from and they've also got a webslinging mechanic (obviously) which looks pretty fun but only gameplay will show how good that is. I have a soft spot for Spider-Man anyway so fingers crossed because this looks incredibly promising. All in all, Sony did a great job but some technical difficulties and that big intermission near the start really slowed it down. I do really want a PS4 now though.
Tuesday:
Nintendo
Nintendo arrive last and do their typical Nintendo thing by showing whatever the hell they want but winning the hearts of nerds (including me) with one massive exciting game. It's also worth mentioning that I don't have a Nintendo Switch (yet, planning on it when I find money) and while I do have a 3DS, it's stopped working properly and we didn't even see any games for it this time. This trend started early with some mech game called Daemon X Machina. It had mechs in it and a cell shaded style but the trailer just seemed to cut off before we'd actually seen anything. Alright, great job guys. Next we got Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Didn't play the first one or Xenoblade X and I'm not crazy on JRPGs so probably won't be playing it but weebs will be happy. Head of Nintendo America Reggie Fills-Amie pops up so all those watching along at home can shout "MY BODY IS READY". He drops a couple of hot teases for later in the show and then talks to us about that new Pokemon game. I'm still not sure if it's a real Pokemon game or a Pokemon Go spinoff but I'm not the target audience for this so I'm sure I'll find out eventually without having to buy the game.
I got real excited at this next bit which was A BRAND NEW MARIO PARTY. I love Mario Party, I think it's God's gift to the world and the news that more are coming out is always exciting. It's called Super Mario Party and it being Nintendo, there's some hot gimmicks in there too. You can connect your Switch tablets for minigames and play on them in a really interesting tabletop mode. Explaining it isn't easy so look for the trailer to see that bit but basically, it's more Mario Party, now on the Switch. We were also greeted with a new Fire Emblem game and I've played a few of them before and kinda liked them. They're strategy games and if you like that, you'll like Fire Emblem but now they've added flashy camera angles and some running around outside of battles to talk to your soldiers. If you like Fire Emblem, this is going to be great for you. You know that meme from 30 Rock where Steve Buscemi says "How do you do, fellow kids?". That's how I feel about the Nintendo Switch getting Fortnite. Still, those feelings were soothed by the indie games section. Overcooked 2 is happening (SCDPFO), there was some weird looking multiplayer game called Killer Queen Black and we found out that popular indie game Hollow Knigt and all the DLC for it was coming to Switch today.
By this point, I and most of the other nerds were salivating for Smash Bros and after sitting through one"best of upcoming gaemes" section, our patience was rewarded with a 25 minute section. I won't lie, it was really worth the wait. We start by basically getting teased, as the creative director tells us he's going to talk us through a bunch of the characters that are appearing in the game. As they're slowly and slowly being revealed, we see a bunch of familiar faces from past games. There's Pichu and Wolf and Young Link. And then it clicks. We're getting all the characters from all the Smash Bros games ever made. Sure, there's only two new characters in this game (the genuinely quite exciting additions of Inkling Boy/Girl and Ridley from Metroid) but this is a roster of 65 characters, larger than any Smash Bros game in history. Finally, we can have the dream matchup between Snake, Jigglypuff, PacMan and one of the kids from Splatoon. Apparently the unlock system for characters is going to be much simpler than other games and we're also still getting 8 player battles, both of which are big news. Finally, the other two big things I picked up on were that we can now KO certain assist trophies and that we're also getting a huge collection of stages from all the games, including the specific ones that only the 3DS version of Smash Bros had. Sure, this Smash Bros hasn't made any massive additions or changes to the formula but it's what I want. It's the very best the franchise has to offer and I want it now pls. So yeah, an okay conference but buoyed by one wonderful wonderful showcase.
Conclusion
This has been a funny old E3 and not an amazing one for it. There's been some great games shown off but also, a lot of the conferences were just not that good and when my favourite conference made me want to buy the console made by their competitors, something weird has happened to me, the industry or both. I guess I'll rank them in order of least misery I suffered for them (I realised just now that I did 7 so it's a bonus Top 7) but really, the best thing about this weekend for me was that I started playing A Link to the Past. Highly recommend that btw, aged like a wine.
7. EA
6. Ubisoft
5. Nintendo
4. Bethesda
3. Square Enix
2. Sony
1. Microsoft
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