Ah E3…for many gamers out there, this is our Super Bowl week. This is the week that most of us have been waiting for since the beginning of the year. What games are gonna show at E3 this year? Will we finally get an announcement for a new Elder Scrolls game? Will we get a new Gears or Halo game? What’s going on with Final Fantasy VII Remake? So many questions, hopes, and dreams are put on this conference more than most to deliver the goods that us gamers have been wanting, waiting and wishing for on the platforms that we love to play. Unlike some gamers, I am a stay at home type, because of family reasons, so I actually get to sit down and watch all of the conferences through a number of avenues, so as an old-timer in the gaming world I thought I’d just give a little synopsis from a typical gamer’s point of view.
EA
EA unofficially kicked off E3 with its press conference Saturday afternoon, and from the start, the press conference felt like a somber affair. The host for the press conference was someone who I’ve actually seen quite a bit of, as a former employee of GameStop. I think with what she had, she did a good job. The thing was the whole conference it felt as if EA was apologizing for the past failures with their fanbase—Star Wars: Battlefront II, I’m talking to you.
They did show some gameplay footage from Battlefield V, which is one of my favorite FPS series. The game, as always looks amazing and I can’t wait to play it. They did announce that they are adding Battle Royale to BF5. Battle Royale is one of the newest catchphrases to the industry that Super Smash Bros. made famous, to be honest, and now other developers have expanded upon. For me as a Battlefield fan, I say the more modes the merrier.
EA also finally gave us more info on Anthem, which seems to be a game in the same vein as Destiny 2, and in some ways the Division. I really liked both games, but I’m really hoping that this game will be better, and offer more replayability and longevity for me. I really liked that I the player can hop in and out of any of the classes in the game.
The newest annual offerings from FIFA and Madden never seem to disappoint their respective fanbases. I haven’t played sports games with any type of seriousness in a very long time, but I have always had an affinity for both games. Back in the day, I love Madden and Tecmo Bowl, and I really liked FIFA when it first came out. It’s just that once I met Final Fantasy VII, all thoughts of playing sports games exclusively went out of the window.
As a more hardcore gamer, I don’t really play many mobile games—mostly because I’m more comfortable with a controller or a mouse in my hand for more control over the characters I play. This is mostly the reason that I honestly didn’t care about the announcement of Command and Conquer: Rivals. I’m hoping that for fans of mobile games and the RTS genre, I hope that this will be a good release for them to sink their teeth.
As a gamer, I found Cornelia Geppert to be quite refreshing, and it’s because of her and to a smaller degree the premise of the game that I am interested in Sea of Solitude. I have often wondered how it will be to have your anger, loneliness and sorrow displayed in such a way that there was no way to hide. How would people react?
I haven’t been a fan of side-scrolling games since Castle Crashers for the Xbox 360, but I must say that Unravel 2 is a beautiful looking side-scroller. I actually liked the fact that the game released during EA’s E3 press conference as well—if only more developers would decide to do that too. I don’t know if I’ll ever try this game, but it seems this series is very popular, and that’s a good thing. The industry needs more stories to be told in new and inventive ways—the stories are what matters, regardless of what some developers think.
I haven’t been a fan of the NBA or NBA games for a very long time. It’s probably, because of the fact that the ‘One and Done’ rule has deluded the game so much in my opinion that the game has devolved into a hot mess—but that’s a debate for another time. The graphics were amazing as with most games, and I am glad that they added a story mode to the game so that fans have something more to do.
I want to talk about the Battlefront II showing from Dice. The people who decided to send out what felt like a D-level employee to basically apologize for the debacle that was the lootbox controversy was sad to be quite honest. I really think whoever brought up the idea of having player pay for damn near everything with real money should have been the one to come out and prostrate themselves before the fans of this game. I really liked the story of this game, but for me, it’s always been about the story and world of a game, and not just how many people I can kill while I run and gun in an FPS. If I don’t have a reason to care about this game, why play it?
I didn’t mention the announcement of a new Star Wars title from Respawn Entertainment, because it really wasn’t an announcement. It just seemed like something said in passing. I am very concerned about Respawn making a Star Wars game. I have been a fan of Star Wars since I first saw ‘A New Hope’ at a Drive-In theatre in 1976. I don’t know how a company who in previous years made the statement that “FPS games don’t need a good story to be a good game”, whose story campaign in Titanfall 2 left a lot to be desired, can make a good and compelling story in the Star Wars universe. I’ll just have wait, hope and see.
All in all, the EA press conference was a little bit of sizzle for those who aren’t fans of the sports game genre, but for the most part, to me, this press conference has always been for the sports genre gaming fans among us.
Microsoft
During the press conference, Microsoft promised 50 games, 18 exclusives and 15 world premieres. After watching this press conference, in all actuality, there were three games that I cared about—and one of them isn’t an Xbox exclusive.
I was happy to see Halo Infinite right off the bat in this press conference. Being a longtime fan of this series, I was glad to see this game get announced. Part of the reason is that I absolutely abhorred the ending to Halo 5. The way that the story just ended, not like a traditional cliffhanger (which I already don’t like), but more as if the floor just collapsed from under my feet, left a VERY bad taste in my mouth. If this is to be the conclusion to Master Chief’s story, I really hope it’s a doozy of an ending.
I have been a major fan of the Gears story since a friend first introduced me to it after the release of Gears 2. I loved this series so much that I’ve read all the novels associated with it, and that’s a rarity for me when it comes to game-related novels. I was so happy to see that a new Gears is coming out soon. The ending of Gears 4 left a bad taste in my mouth, so I’m hoping that Gears 5 explains what happened after they left the cave.
My husband is a longtime fan of the Forza series, though the last Forza angered him. He didn’t like that players of the game were forced to use real money to buy everything in the game, including individual cars. Honestly, this purchase model was a big ass slap in the face to the fans that had supported this game series until and made it the popular hit that it is for Microsoft and the Xbox. I’m hoping this entry into the series is a game that brings older fans to the series back, and gets the bad taste out my husband’s mouth for this series.
Devil May Cry 5 and Just Cause 4 were announced and I would imagine that their respective fanbases are going to love these games from the trailers that I watched during the conference. Both games look amazing, I really liked that they teased Dante in the DMC trailer.
Oh and the Division 2—why is this a new game? From everything they showed during the press conference, this would have been better served to be a large expansion to the base Division game, than being released as a new game in the series. Don’t get me wrong. I bought this game for PC, and I loved playing it. Having said that, from the gameplay video that was shown, there aren’t enough changes in the base mechanics of the game to call this a new game. In any other world, this would be an expansion to an already existing popular game, because make no mistake, the Division may have faltered out of the gate, but since then it has become a very popular and respected game. I just would have preferred to have an expansion.
Dying Light 2 is an interesting survival horror game. I am not a survival horror fan by any stretch of the imagination, and I am so tired of the recent zombie craze that has driven some gamers crazy. Honestly, for me, if developers never release another zombie or survival horror game again, I wouldn’t be hurt by it. Having said that, I do find the premise of this new entry into the Dying Light series interesting.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is interesting action game by FromSoftware. My issue is I haven’t seen enough of the story’s premise to decide whether I want to play this game or not. I think that was a major issue for me throughout this conference—either a world premiere was a game that was already out on the system, or it was a game that didn’t give enough information to tip me one way or the other.
Microsoft “acquired” four new game companies, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games, Ninja Theory and Playground Games. I find Compulsion Games’ We Happy Few to be a very interesting game. It really reminds me of a Bioshock feel, which has drawn me to the game. With Undead Labs, again I’m not a survival horror fan, so that’s lost on me. I was very impressed with Ninja Theory’s Hellblade, so I’m looking forward to seeing what comes from this developer. Playground Games, I’ve felt for a long time that it was only a matter of time before Microsoft completely swallowed this developer down its Xbox maw. For many years, Forza is the game that brings non-console fan boys and girls back to the yard year after year so to speak.
On the whole, except for a few wows, Microsoft’s press conference felt like a lot of rehash of games that are either already out, or those that are going to be available on multiple platforms.
Bethesda
The press conference started off slowly for me. Rage 2 looked great, but I still don’t know if I’m going to play this game. I didn’t play Rage, so I don’t really know much about this world and story, Honestly, though watching the trailer, I still don’t know what makes this game fun. I don’t understand why I would want to play this game.
I haven’t been a fan of the Doom series. I was always more of a Duke Nukem girl. The sequel to 2016’s remake looks amazing, scary and disgusting and I’m sure fans of the game can’t wait for it to come out. In the same genre, Quake Champions had a showing at this press conference. To be honest, I couldn’t care less—never liked Quake. Prey fans also get two new DLCs coming soon, which I’m sure they’ll salivate over. I like that there’s gonna be two new Wolfenstein games. I have always admired the story of that series, and can’t wait to see streamers like CohhCarnage playing this one.
Which brings us to the two biggest game series that made Bethesda one of the giants in the game industry—Fallout and Elder Scrolls. Bethesda had already announced Fallout 76, the newest entry into the Fallout series, but not much was really known about it. Well after this press conference some questions were answered, but new questions were created. Fallout76 is going to be an always-online game. Players will be able to explore this world as a member of Vault 76, the first vault that was created in anticipation of this world’s impending apocalypse. Also, players will be able to play as a single player or in groups with their friends. There will be persistent servers and every person you meet while playing this game will another player. What about the obligatory NPCs that litter all types of games of this type? Will a group of friends be able to make a building that all of them can upgrade, embellish and protect, or will each member of the group need to build their own place? What if two players build a home base in the same location, but on different servers. What building will they use when they party up? There are still so many questions about this game that are unanswered. With this game releasing November 14th of this year, I am very confused and concerned about this game.
Elder Scrolls…oh, Elder Scrolls! For a minute, I thought they were going to announce another platform for Skyrim. I really loved the joke video about Skyrim for Alexa. What at first pissed me off was the announcement of Elder Scrolls Blades. I mean are you kidding me? But giving a good look at it, and thinking about it, Blades isn’t such a bad idea for a mobile game. It adds a mobile game that’s in the Elder Scrolls universe besides Legends, and frankly, if this is what it takes to make money for an Elder Scrolls VI, then I’m all for it—as long as Elder Scrolls VI actually comes out eventually. At least we did get a teaser trailer for Elder Scrolls VI, which I finally lost the rest of voice yelled and clapping for.
Honestly, by the end of this press conference, I was happy to see Elder Scrolls and Fallout76, because the rest of this conference was not for me as a gamer. I can’t wait until 2020 or 2022 for Elder Scrolls VI to come out.
What do you think? Have you had a chance to watch any of the press conferences so far? If so, what do you think of the new games coming out? What do you think about the presentations from EA, Microsoft and Bethesda? Let me know. Be sure to leave a comment.
