Hello all, it’s another year, and another E3 is winding down. While I wanted my 100th post to be a little bit more celebratory, there was no way I could not talk about E3 and the good things we saw, the bad things we cringed at, and the things that made me just ask myself what the fuck I was witnessing. It’s always nigh-impossible for me to remember everything that happens each E3, so if I miss some things, sue me, but these are the things that stood out the most. So let’s get to it.
The Good
Microsoft commits to first party development. While I’m sure that Microsoft acquiring Ninja Theory is either a good thing or the worst thing ever depending on who you ask, it was the first ‘holy shit’ moment of E3. Both Undead Labs and Playground Games made perfect sense, as they were practically second-party developers already, and MS needed to make sure Playground didn’t start yearning for greener pastures, but Ninja Theory seemed to come way out of left field. After their stellar Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (so I’m told, it’s still on the wish list), it seemed like Ninja Theory was surely flexing their indie muscles. Apparently though, they were desperately looking for stability, and Microsoft offered it. No matter how you slice it, this was a big win for MS.
Resident Evil 2 Remake is no longer a myth. RE2 is back, and holy shit it looks awesome. Not only did Capcom take the series back to its roots, but it totally leap-frogged the HD prettied up fixed-camera re-imagining most of us were expecting and went with a fully 3D over-the-shoulder view that the more recent RE’s had adopted. From what little I saw, it looked incredibly creepy and retained the air of mystery and atmosphere that made the original games so great. I won’t be doing many write-ups on this game before it’s January 2019 release, mainly because I’ll be on media blackout. I don’t want to spoil it.
Nintendo makes me interested in Super Smash Bros. again. As someone who owned the original Super Smash Bros. on N64, I always found it to be a fun diversion but was never a big fan. Nintendo’s Direct video, announcing that every character that has ever been in a Smash game will be appearing in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, actually got a “wow” out of me as I was watching. The game looks to be absolutely huge, and with that kind of roster, there’s no excuse for someone to play as the same character as you. No more Kirby on Kirby violence.
Spider-man still looks awesome. As much as I’m getting a little bit of trailer-fatigue (it’s a thing and I’m sticking with it) for the PS4 exclusive Spider-man game, actually seeing some uninterrupted gameplay this time around has me pretty stoked. This time we got a peek at some of the other villains Spidey will be facing, with a big teaser for a main baddie that has yet to be announced. As a Spider-man geek, I did notice that some of the members of the Sinister Six were present, so if I had to guess, the big baddie will either be Mysterio or Doctor Octopus. I mean, it could be Sandman or Kraven the Hunter or some other Spidey villain, but they were always more of a henchman role and never the mastermind. Perhaps it’s the Green Goblin, but I actually hope they go with someone we don’t see very often.
Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls Online come to Xbox Game Pass. Whether you’re an Xbox fan or not, Bethesda’s announcement that Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 4 are now available on Game Pass sends the signal that they’re on board with Microsoft’s service. This is a great thing for the future, especially since Bethesda has a ton of great IP’s like Wolfenstein, Dishonored, and Evil Within. Whatever the case, it’s a win for gamers.
The Bad
EA still EA. We can always depend on EA to give the most awkward press conference possible. This is what happens when the guy in the suit that has no experience in putting on a show makes the decisions. I don’t know if this is how it happened, but I imagined a stage director standing on stage during rehearsals, trying to put a show together with an EA corporate number-cruncher standing behind him, tapping him on the shoulder every few seconds and making him change something. Ask any graphic designer, web developer, or artist that has ever done work for a client what happens when the non-creatives start making changes. The result is pretty much what we saw on that stage on Saturday. Here’s an idea, EA. Hire someone that knows how to put together a presentation, then let them do their fucking job.
Ubisoft apparently doesn’t listen to their fans. At all. Not only did yet another E3 come and go, with no slight mention of a new Splinter Cell in any shape or form, but it did so after a mammoth tease earlier this year in the form of a Splinter Cell tie-in mission in Ghost Recon Wildlands. It was complete with the return of Michael Ironside as the voice of Sam Fisher and an interview PR tour done by Michael to promote the whole thing. Us fans thought for sure this was all leading up to an E3 announcement. I guess the joke was on us. Chalk one up to Ubisoft for totally missing the boat on the hype and fervor they generated with that Wildlands event and proving to us that they really don’t know what the fans want.
Sony’s press conference was boring as all hell. I tuned in to Sony’s press conference knowing full well they weren’t going to have a mile-a-minute sizzle reel announcing a ton of stuff. They said as much themselves in the month or two leading up to E3. They were going to show fewer games, but spend more time on them. That sounds great and all, but what we got was a poorly paced, awkward show that honestly looked like it was thrown together at the last second. With the exception of a few live performances, the entire thing could’ve been completely done as a live stream. The trailer for The Last of Us 2 was great, Spider-man was great, and honestly I don’t remember anything about the other two because I was already toning it out. Bring back the sizzle reel please.
Nintendo’s Direct was Super Smash Bros, but not much else. With the exception of some Xenoblade Chronicles 2 add-on content and a new Pokemon game, Nintendo’s video spent a hell of a long time on Super Smash Bros. While E3 is not even close to being an important deal for Nintendo now that they do regular Directs, it was still a moment when all eyes were on them. Instead we got an instructional video that would’ve been best suited for a time closer to Smash’s launch. The lack of new information on their online service was disheartening, especially since Smash Bros. will rely heavily on it. No updates on their classic games service was a bummer too.
The WTF???
Ubisoft goes right back to cranking out Assassin’s Creed. Proving that they didn’t learn a fucking thing from last year, Ubisoft ditched their “taking a year off” mentality to going right back to being the Assassin’s Creed factory. Not only did fans appreciate having a year off, but we actually hoped it would be the start of a trend. We don’t need an AC every year. Taking the year off allowed them to change things up, and while this year’s AC looks to expand more toward the RPG angle that Origins started, it’s still only coming out one year after the last one. This annoyance is magnified when you consider the fact that we will have had six Assassin’s Creed games since the last Splinter Cell game came out. SIX! And counting! That’s the same number of games that the entire Splinter Cell series has had since the first one launched in 2002. What the fuck, Ubisoft. What. The actual. Fuck.
The Coalition trolls Gears fans during MS conference. “What the fuck?” was probably the most uttered phrase in the building when the Gears of War logo was chainsawed through by a Funko POP! character instead of our expected ex-COG badasses. In hindsight, it was a funny moment that everyone could laugh at, mainly because we eventually got our actual Gears 5 trailer, but at the time you could hear the cheers end abruptly and get replaced with audible gasps. It wasn’t until afterwards in an interview on Mixer’s E3 stream that they admitted to swapping the Funko trailer with the Gears 5 trailer to get a rise out of the audience. Well played, Coalition. Well played.
Death Stranding has so much WTF that I don’t even care anymore. Kojima will Kojima every time. But it’s at the point where I don’t even care if Kojima Kojima’s, because I’m getting pretty fucking weary of Kojima Kojima-ing every time he shows us something. With more weirdness than actual explanation, Death Stranding looks like typical Kojima over-indulgence, and I just can’t anymore.
The trailer-fatigue was strong this year. With no single publisher at fault, this year’s E3 was less about new announcments and more about reminding us yet again that these games exist. We saw yet more of The Last of Us 2. We saw more of Spider-man. We saw another trailer for Crackdown 3. We were treated to no less than three trailers for Kingdom Hearts 3. With a whole host of other games that won’t be coming out until the end of this year or early-to-mid 2019, expect to see these trailers even more come Gamescom in August.
Sony still being dicks about cross-platform play. With the release of Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch, gamers immediately noticed that they couldn’t log into their account if it had previously been linked to a Sony account. It seems like Sony is intent on keeping its walled garden a safe, secret place for them to play all by themselves. While it may make perfect sense for them from a business perspective, when your slogan is “For the Gamers” and you’re consistently pulling anti-gamer moves, it kinda makes you look like a prick, and an arrogant one at that.
Okay, so I may sound like a cynical bastard, but I really wasn’t all that impressed this year. I didn’t really see anything new, and the big news had been mainly spoiled in the weeks leading up to the event. Nothing really left me wanting more. Forza Horizon 4 gave me goosebumps while watching, but I’m a big racing fan anyway so that’s gonna happen. Nothing from Beyond Good & Evil is resonating with me. I really don’t like their character designs, and that fucking chimp has probably the most grating piece of shit personality I’ve seen in a while. I’ll pass on that one. When it comes out in ten years.
I’m not really a big ancient/feudal Japan kinda guy, so games in that setting are a hard sell for me. As such, stuff like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Ghosts of Tsushima don’t really yank my crank. Nothing against those games personally, I just can’t get excited for them.
We already knew that January and February of 2019 were going to be brutal on the wallet, but until this week we didn’t know just how brutal. The list of games launching in that window is staggering, and I can’t help but wonder which ones will take a hit. For example, Anthem, Kingdom Hearts 3, and Resident Evil 2 all release within a week. As much as I love RE2, that’s not a good pair of games to be sandwiched in with. We’ll see how it shakes out, I guess.
