This article originally ran under a different banner/website in June of 2018 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE! HEAR YE! E3 has come and gone. New games were announced and teased. Trailers seen. Minimal gameplay shown. But enough witty remarks. We have a lot to cover so LET THE SHOW BEGIN.
Electronic Arts, the villains of the show, always choose to go first in this grand circus. With the pay to win loot box Battlefront 2 fiasco, EA has taken all of my trust and burnt it to the ground. While adding in ewok hunt and clone wars characters into a dying game is noble, it will not make me come back to Battlefront 2 or win my trust. Name-dropping a single player Star Wars game by Respawn will not help either. I see you are also trotting out your usual cattle of sports games with FIFA 2019, NBA Live 19, and Madden 2019. Madden returning to the PC, how interesting. Did you remove the Ultimate Team Mode that has loot boxes containing athletes? No? Are you truly sorry for the loot boxes in games or are you sorry we caught you with your pants down EA? You seemed to boast with pride that you removed loot boxes from Battlefield V and Anthem, why not your sport games? Probably the same reason you bolted a battle royale mode onto Battlefield V: corporate greed. Also, no gameplay for Battlefield V? Then again, we would probably get an incredibly scripted gameplay trailer similar to one we got for Anthem. Along with that trailer and a small interview with the developers, I cannot say EA convinced me Anthem is worth the money. I have too many questions ranging from how EA will squeeze more money out of their players to how Anthem is going to run on computers and consoles alike. I will admit their indie titles Unravel Two and Sea of Solitude appear untainted by EA’s greed and have captured my curiosity. However, the most insulting move of them all was revealing a bland, uninspired mobile RTS game and then having the nerve to call it Command and Conquer Rivals. Did you not learn anything from your Syndicate reboot? When you use a famous name to sell your quick cash in, all you do is hand fans of the series torches and pitchforks. EA, you have not won my trust, you have won my contempt.
Next on deck is Microsoft. Now we all know Microsoft is bit behind in this rat race, so they needed to bring it. I’ll give them props for getting Halo out of the way at the start, especially since all they had was a name. Ori and the Blind Forest looks good, but why not show game play like Unravel Two. I like how FromSoftware is jumping the Sony ship in order to stop making more Dark Souls, just to go onto Microsoft’s ship just to make samurai Dark Souls. Must be a shame to always be type casted, but still their name game, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice does look interesting. Crackdown 3 continues to milk Terry Crews for all his worth. I also don’t consider that trailer as gameplay. Like Anthem’s trailer, the constant cutaways can’t help but give off a scripted feel. With that said, though I am always up for thrilling single player experience, I can’t help feel disappointed by the trailer for Metro: Exodus. Please sir, can I have some unscripted gameplay please. A small level? A side mission, sir? Sea of Thieves expansions? Any word on if they will have content? No? Oh well. Did they need to discuss Forza Horizon 4 as long as they did? Yes? Oh well. Next Microsoft did some humble bragging of the small studios they snached up including Undead Labs, Playground Games, Compulsion Games and Ninja Theory. Ninja Theory NO! Hellblade was the genual horror game to come out last year. I still have troubles trying to complete it due to looming atmospheric voice that plagues the game’s protagonist, Senua. Surely, Microsoft won’t let them continue making games like this, because most publishers believe horror doesn’t sell. We Happy Few has a world rivaling the one from Bioshock, but nothing kills my interest as the words “open world survival”. Stake reveal: check. Black Desert expansion reveal: check. Devil May Cry 5 reveal: check. Cuphead DLC reveal: check. No gameplay check. WAIT! Hold that check says Microsoft, we have Tunic and Dying Light 2 gameplay. Fair, but what about gameplay for Jump Force or Battletoads? So Gears Pop on mobile? Really Microsoft? You better have something else? I guess Gears Tactics and fresh Gears 5 certainly counts, but having Cyberpunk 2077 tease at the end was a nice little cherry. Honestly, Microsoft, not a bad show, but please have more gameplay next year please.
As someone who firmly pitched their tent in the single player camp of gaming, Bethesda has become a dependable friend for allowing me to continue indulging in my antisocial behaviors. So tell me Bethesda, what games do you have that I can use to hide from my friends when they want to play the newest battle royale game? Well, Bethesda said rolling up its sleeves, we have a Rage 2 gameplay trailer, a Doom tease, a promised Doom trailer for Quakecon, updates to Quake Champions, and a Wolfenstein 2 stand-alone. Wow, Bethesda, really milking those Id Software intellectual properties aren’t we? We also have Prey DLC nervously blurbs out Bethesda. Come on, Bethesda, don’t be coy. Give us some new Fallout or Elder Scrolls. Well, says Bethesda shyly looking at the floor, we have updates to Elder Scrolls Legends and Online. Nobody cares for your card game or MMO, Bethesda, what else do you have? Announcing Fallout 76, an online survival DayZ style game set in the Fallout Universe; where you venture the land, build bases, form gangs, and attempt to obtain nukes launch codes to use on enemy players or the surrounding landscape. Bethesda must be unaware we all learned these online survival games are just grief simulators. Well, I guess we should be thankful it is not Skyrim on mobile; especially, after that Skyrim on Alexa joke. Bethesda timindly looks at the floor before nervously mutters they still plan to release an Elder Scrolls mobile game called Elder Scrolls Blades that looks like Skyrim but totally isn’t “Skyrim”. My blood begins to boil. Sensing my rage, Bethesda quickly drops a space RPG named Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI before sprinting off the stage expecting praise. This, in my opinion, puts Fallout 76 and Elder Scrolls Blades worse light. Those games represent resources Bethesda could have used to get the titles we truly want, Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI, further along. Sure, they probably wouldn’t have been ready today, but we could have gotten more than just a name drop. Oh, Bethesda, I always come to you for single player experience. While you are providing that with the help of Id Software properties, your online survival and mobile leave me saying “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”
After that disappointing display from Bethesda, it was so great to have Devolver Digital up next. While Devolver Digital publishes some small games, they do know one thing: HOW TO HAVE FUN. Their patented piss take of other publisher’s performers at events like E3, is truly a breath of fresh air that left me and other doomsayers roaring with laughter. The cherry on top was the announcement of prison riot survival game SCUM, Deadpool simulator My Friend Pedro, and mech fighter Metal Wolf Chaos XD. If you haven’t seen anything from E3, I highly recommend watching the Devolver Digital show.
Whatever haze Devolver Digital put me under must have still have had an affect on me the next day, because I swear Square Enix is showing off Tomb Raider gameplay. Sure it has a lot of pre animated takedowns and almost too many tools, but HALLELUJAH REAL GAMEPLAY. Wait, Square Enix, why did you stop talking about Tomb Raider. No I don’t want to hear about your Final Fantasy mmo, please bring back Tomb Raider. As someone who used to imagine himself as a superhero as a kid, Captain Spirit, looks like it trying to remind us what itis like being a kid again. By the developers of Life is Strange, color me intrigued; no gameplay, color me annoyed. Saying it is free June 26, well I guess I can forgive no game play since it probably plays exactly like Life is Strange. Soon after, Square Enix vomited four different trailers so fast I was unable to grasp the premise of any of them. I did see Platinum Games on one of the trailers so we can assume it will have the patented Platinum fast chaotic gameplay, but then why even have them. Just Cause 4 falls into the same concern I have with Anthem and other gigantic world games: how will any console or PC be able to handle rendering any of that world? All I can say of Kingdom Hearts 3 is I am glad someone forced Square Enix to give it a release date. Though, showing the same trailer you showed off at Microsoft at your own show is pure laziness, especially when you had enough of Tomb Raider for both your conference and the Microsoft conference. After seeing you show off gameplay with Tomb Raider, I know you can definitely do better Square.
I have always believed Ubisoft to be a very creative company, the dancing panda they brought out help confirm this point. But I believe their obsession with open world sandboxes is slowly becoming a problem. Did this conference continue or alleviate this problem? I planned on saying a cinematic trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2 doesn’t help, but with dropping the original game’s hero Jade, as an antagonist, I can’t say I am not curious. I can’t help get a whiff of No Man’s Sky from those small gameplay snippets. What will separate the two games will be how much content will be filled in Beyond Good and Evil 2. A question that is probably not something that can be answered right now. Oh good, the Trials guys are back with a new game called Trials Rising, but honestly, I can’t tell the difference between this game and their previous Trials game, Trials Fusion. Sad to see Ubisoft is the only one who hasn’t learned the fake voiceover makes your gameplay trailer seem even more scripted than the Anthem trailer. Shame, since if they didn’t have the cringe voiceover, I will be praising The Division 2 reveal at the Microsoft show. End game progression and free DLC for Division 2, good signs that Ubisoft is getting back on their feet. WHO DARES TELL UBISOFT MY LOVE FOR VIDEO GAME SOUNDTRACKS, because they clearly used to that to get me excited for the Mario Rabbits: Donkey Kong Adventure. At first, I was annoyed they had Grant KIrkhope and other musicians perform rather than tell us about the game, but seeing that faithful Mario Rabbits turn based combat, my cynicism melted away. Skull and Bones is continuing my questions: these games look so demanding on consoles and PC, how are we going to play them? That being said, this could be what Sea of Thieves fans were looking for. Wish they gameplay trailer wasn’t scripted, but I am starting to sound like a broken record. In a world where collaboration is becoming for more scarce, seeing Nintendo and Ubisoft work together, is something the industry should strive for. Now for the big one, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, I find myself conflicted on it. While the gameplay trailer highlighted some great strengths of the game, I am still confused on how the assassin and templars play into the story. Do they not anymore? If so why still have it be assassin creed? A small nitpick in a sea of promising stuff.
Sony is obviously running from the high of God of War, so will they continue the pace or drop the ball. Opening up with a Last of Us 2 trailer is good. Opening up with Last of Us 2 gameplay trailer even better. Sony then keeps the ball rolling with a tense Ghost of Tsushima, detailing a samurai adventure that looks thrilling. While not much in the way of gameplay, Remedy’s Control and Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 had me on the edge of seat and scratching my horror game itch. It was great to see a new trailer for Kingdom Heart 3, but I am still confused on why they used the same trailer for the Microsoft and Square Enix, but I different one for Sony. Myself and the rest of world are still confused and bewildered on what Death Stranding is. All I know is I want to learn more about Death Stranding. The world is in short supplies of soulslikes games, so I definitely welcome Nioh 2. Spiderman is definitely taking a lot of ques from Arkham City, and while I am sure the fighting will feel just as good as the Arkham series, I am not sure if the web slinging will be as thrilling as the Gamecube’s Spiderman 2 game. Spiderman games live or die on their web slinging, and reducing it down to quick button presses might not play out. The demo does show some momentum in those swings so it could work out. Sony definitely chose to go with a quality of quantity this E3 with their focus on a few games and had “gameplay” trailers for each ones.
Nintendo is certainly riding high off the success of the Switch, but Nintendo is not immune to missteps. With Nintendo marching to the beat of their own drum, will they continue the success or trip over their own feet? Well, they opened up with a trailer for a new IP, Daemon X Machina, and after checking the previous paragraphs, I realize Nintendo is the only ones opening up with a new IP. Bold move Nintendo. They follow up with a rapid fire of trailers for sci-fi rpg *Xenoblade Chronicle 2*, *Pokemon Let’s Go*, friendship ruiner *Super Mario Party*, and tactical rpg *Fire Emblem Three House*. All of the trailers giving a small drip feed of gameplay. Nintendo also reassured us they would continue being a home for indie games announcing chaotic cooking game *Overcooked 2*, team based action platformer *Killer Queen Black*, metroidvania *Hollow Knight* and many other coming to the Switch. Last, but certainly not least, Nintendo announced Super Smash Bros Ultimate, and while I think Sony might have been showing off Spiderman just as long, Nintendo showed off an extended amount of gameplay. Something I have to applaud since I have criticized everyone for not showing enough gameplay. When Nintendo is in their element, the industry could do more to follow in their footsteps.
While I think I have given many presentators at E3 praise, I am sure to some will say I was not positive enough. A crime that I am indeed guilty of. I only do it, because I have remembered times likes these. Times where we were so excited for a game we didn’t ask why aren’t they showing gameplay or how with this run on my consoles. I remember No Man’s Sky’s false promises. I remember the illusions Watch Dogs created. I remember Aliens: Colonial Marines. It is ok if you experience excitement for Fallout 76 or Anthem; I only ask you be cautious with your purchases. Do your research. Read up on reviews. And whatever you do, DO NOT PRE-ORDER.