The two notable mentions from the EA conference are Bioware's Anthem & Respawn's newly revealed game Jedi: Fallen Order. Anthem continues to look polished this year they revealed some more gameplay but also revealed that the game will have no PVP (player vs player) modes or aspects. I see this as a red flag for a game in this genre as PVP adds a massive potential for replay-ability. I am not sure Bioware is properly equipped or aware of the player base for these MMO-esk games. It's a often highly critical and ravenous bunch of gamers, between that aspect and the massive Twitch community that plays content in an accelerated pace I worry that it will run into the issue which every other game in the genre has at launch. That is to say, not enough end game content. Remove PVP aspects and you may find yourself with a short lived adventure. The newly revealed Star Wars game on the other hand gave us very little information other than the title and the estimated time in which the story takes place. (between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope) as always when it comes to Star Wars games, we will cross our fingers and hope for the best. All in all a "meh" conference.
It seemed like everyone just KNEW that Phil Spencer had to come out on stage at this years E3 and course correct, build consumer trust and of course they needed to give people something to look forward to. Over the generation no one can deny that Microsoft has had a rough go at it, they have struggled with messaging and most importantly with bringing gamers exclusive games worthy of the brand. I mentioned that they needed to course correct and build consumer confidence and I believe they nailed it at this years E3. Phil Spencer showed a bevy of games (50 to be exact) some 18 exclusive to the Xbox/Windows Store, but more importantly they put their money where their mouth is and they brought in 5 developers in house as 1st party studios most notably Ninja Theory the studio that brought the sleeper hit Hellblade this past year. This is a long play, they know this generation is a lost cause. We don't know if these studios will deliver the sorely needed quality exclusive games for the platform but it's a step in the right direction and for that I applaud them. The games we needed to see were there, the Halo Infinite reveal, the Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4 even a Cuphead DLC. The major reveal for this writer was Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice which is the next game from Dev studio From Software. Ending with a new look at CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 was a nice touch. It's good to see that Microsoft isn't rolling over. I think this was a great year for them.
Bethesda doesn't always come to E3 but we have been seeing them come more in the recent years. Some question if it's necessary but with one of the most diverse offerings of any of the major 3rd party Publishers I think it's warranted. We got a some time with the God father of the studio Todd Howard which is basically a nod that big things are about to be revealed, and revealed they were. We saw an extended look at Fall Out 76 which is the series first fully multiplayer game, with a game world x4 the size of Fall Out 4 and more freedom to build, destroy and adventure it looks very ambitious. The follow up to Wolfenstein: The New Colossus was also revealed and you play as BJ's twin daughers in a 1980's Paris setting. Rage 2 was shown being co-developed with Avalanche Studios which looks great. The conference ended with two major reveals and over arching revelations. Both Starfield & Elderscrolls VI were teased with Todd Howard tipping the audience off that they're being developed with next generation hardware in mind. Exciting stuff! Overall a great conference.
Let's be frank, Square Enix does itself absolutely no favors. Where it used to be synonymous with the best JRPGs in the business it's now known for very drawn out development cycles, high level mismanagement and terrible consumer communication. The sad part? It gets in the way of the otherwise very good games. I have a buddy that asks me about once a week "Jay, when do you think we're getting our hands on FFVII: Remake" and I have to shoot him down every time. This game is what everyone has been clamoring for since it's reveal in 2014. Do I think Square assumed it would be in the place it is now when it revealed it? No! but does that matter now? Also no. Anyways Square showed off an impressive looking Shadows of the Tomb Raider, a spiritual successor to Life is Strange named The Awesome Adventures Of Captain Spirit which isn't my thing but I know that Life is Strange has a huge following so i'm sure it got some people excited. Platinum Games revealed Babylons Fall we also saw an impressive gameplay clip from Just Cause 4. We got yet another look at Kingdom Hearts III which looks incredible but we have seen way too much of this game at this point. The conference was wrapped up with the reveal of The Quiet Man which without context for what we saw we can't really comment on. I finished watching this conference pretty underwhelmed.
Ubisoft has one of the best marketing squads in all of gaming. Period. I have to admit I missed the obligatory Just Dance 2019 segment that someone must be shoehorning into the event every year so my viewing experience didn't have that as part of it. I believe that Ubisoft has such a dynamic line up of genuinely unique and great games. The Beyond Good and Evil 2 section of the conference was incredible from the super enticing universe they presented to the snippet of alpha gameplay and the newly announced partnership with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's HitRECord company to fill the game with individually curated assets ranging from music, art, props, clothes design it's very ambitious and I applaud Ubisoft for taking the risk. We got to see a chunk of The Division 2 which looks great, they announced it will have a years worth of free DLC coming post launch as well as 8 man raids. Kudos for listening to it's passionate community and delivering the goods. We got a look at some smaller stuff like a new Fusion Trials & Mario + Rabbids DLC as well as a look at the fully realized Pirate game Skull and Bones which is shaping up to look like everything Sea of Thieves wished it was. The other highlight of the conference for me was Starlink: Battle for Atlus, as I was watching the reveal trailer I messaged my friend and said verbatim "This is the Star Fox game I wish Nintendo would give me" no sooner had I sent the text did I get the surprise that Fox McCloud will be playable on the Switch version of the game. That's a preorder. We got a great official reveal of the next Assassins Creed game in Assassins Creed: Odyssey which looks very much up my alley, it looks like they are leaning into the RPG side that Origins kick-started and i'm all about it. I came away from this conference very excited for the games coming.
Sony got a lot of backlash after this years E3 conference and I believe some of it is warranted. Let's start with the obvious they chose style over functionality, having live music is all good and well but who thought it should be anything more than a background while a video is showing or a 1-3min intro, these segments dragged on entirely too long. Then there is the 15min intermission while they moved an entire audience from one place to the next. I am sure if you were apart of the audience it was a great experience but the MAJORITY of us are viewing this online and i'm sorry but it's just unacceptable to have 3 hosts very clearly making talking points up to pass the time mid show. Now, besides all of these glaring issues did Sony deliver on the games? I don't see how you can look at the line up and come to any other conclusion than: Hell yes. We got our first look at game play from Naughty Dog's sequel to the best game of last generation The Last of Us which looks absolutely breathtaking and completely brutal all at once we cannot wait to get hands on with this game.We also got a look at Sucker Punches' new game Ghost of Tsushima which looks incredibly vibrant and while the UI was turned off and we can't tell exactly how everything will work we do know it's an open world action RPG. The combat looks tight and skill based with countering playing a major role. I am all in when this releases. Contrary to what even Sony was saying, we did get a look at some brand new games in Remedy's Control. If you're at all familiar with this studios work you will be happy to hear it's living up to expectations. There are very notable hints of the last title from Remedy Quantum Break which was fantastic. One of the biggest crowd pleasers was the reveal (or confirmation if you keep your eyes on the rumor mill) of the Resident Evil 2: Remake. Now I can't claim to be excited by this reveal as I have never been able to play these games due to being a wuss, but I know the importance of this title to many friends and I can appreciate why it's a great reveal. The other major reveal was that of Nioh 2 which was one of the most low key critically acclaimed games. I hope this one gets its day in the sun upon it's launch. We got an extended "walking simulator" trailer of Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding which LOOKS great but there was little of substance in terms of showing what you will be doing in the game, or what its about so like most things regarding Kojima we came away with more questions than answers. The conference finished up with a fantastic vertical slice from the upcoming Spider-Man game from Insomniac Games which is due out this September. This game looks like it will be the next platinum trophy. You heard it here first. All in all, Sony failed in the presentation department but nailed it when it came to substance, it was a weak conference when compared to recent years.
I think everyone, including myself expected Nintendo to come out swinging with big reveals that could continue it's meteoric comeback tour. I think they did enough for the base but I came away from this conference underwhelmed. Nintendo showed off iteration 29 (jk, who knows how many they have) of it's Mario Party series in Super Mario Party which looks like you would expect. I'm sure it'll sell and people will enjoy it as a suitable Switch iteration. There was a DLC reveal for Xenoblade 2 called Xenoblade 2: Torna the Golden Country which I have on good authority people are excited about. There was a reveal on the next Fire Emblem game called Fire Emblem: Three Houses which got some friends of mine hype. Some ports were also announced in Hallowknight & Fortnite. The big reveal was of course the long awaited Super Smash Brothers Ultimate which will be coming out this coming December. I know it's not a popular opinion but I just really think this game should have been out already. I am going to buy it and i'm sure i'm going to love it but it's hard to get excited about in terms of E3 hype. They discussed the game for over 25mins ranging from good info like how every character from Smash will be in Ultimate to the mundane stuff like how certain assist trophies will be in the game, it felt like filler to me. The game that showed up unexpectedly and has me wanting to swipe my credit card the most during the conference is undoubtedly DAEMON X MACHINA I have been wanting a follow up to the Armored Core series for quite awhile and while it's not Armored Core, it's the next best thing. A spiritual successor with a very cool aesthetic and it's own personality that i'm digging. I think my other favorite Nintendo announcement happened on the Ubisoft stage with Starlink: Battle for Atlus having exclusive Star Fox content. That is probably the best analogy for how this conference went for me very hit or miss. But seriously though where was Metroid Prime 4?
Chronocide has selected Beyond Good and Evil 2 as our Game of the Show from E3 2018! between the stunning visuals, the sheer insanity of the games scale and the ambitious nature of what they're trying to do with HitRECord we didn't even have to second guess it.
No comments:
Post a Comment