Man this was pretty hard for me to sit through. Maybe its just been a long day and the state of the world is getting me down but I honestly can't think of another event like this that I hated so much. Thats including years of watching all the E3 and other press conferences, The Game Awards (dating back to the Spike years). I would gladly watch another EA or Bethesda presser than one like this.
So few games were of personal interest to me. The out of nowhere awards and the super weird Surgeon Simulator x Back To The Future bit felt very out of place. I don't have any love for the WoW universe but have admired Blizzard's work with amazing looking CG cut-scenes in the past. The much too long visual novel/voiced over concept art did absolutely nothing for me. I know its waaaay more work but I think it may have been much more captivating if it was fully CG.
Also I don't know why I need influencers/youtubers/twitch streamers (look ill be honest I don't know who any of them were) to market "gaming" to me. I already play games, you don't need to win me over and I seriously doubt anyone who doesn't play games is sitting down watching this presentation. It is a trend of these types of streams that needs to stop.
Nothing against Keighley, I think in general he does a good job with what he is given. It must be very challenging to put an entertaining show together at the best of times, but I felt like so much of it could have been cut down or out completely to make the show much better. I know that developers and publishers may not be ready to show what they are currently working on or have other/their own avenues they are going to show their stuff, but then I don't know why this needed to happen at all. It's so hard to tell that there are new consoles on the horizon when so many of the games only had current gen logos.
Lastly, not that I was expecting any news to come out here, but this ridiculous holding pattern we are in between Sony and Microsoft waiting for the other to announce a date and pricing is seriously killing the excitement. Especially since both sides have would be launch games getting delayed and neither have a particularly interesting line up, they really need to throw the fans a bone.
Well, this one has even less to talk about than I expected... and my expectations were already pretty low. The cold open was a bit odd and felt very unlike Nintendo. Did we ever actually get an intro?
Daemon X Machina was up first. This thing looks promising. Never really played many mech games but this seems like it might be up my alley. An expansion for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was then announced. Pretty excited for this. Am most of the way through the main game and have really enjoyed it. First one in the whole series I have played.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is up next. I love Fire Emblem games so will definitely be getting this one. Fortnight on Switch... nothing else to say here. A few other highlights of Overcooked 2, Killer Queen Black, Hollow Knight and Octopath Traveler… man this game has a look to it.
Finally we get what felt like an hour on Super Smash Bros Ultimate. I guess we now know that it’s a new game with every single character from the past games… with a couple of additions. I loved Smash on the 64 but never fell in love with any of the sequels. This looks like they are building on top of the previous title, which I enjoyed, but it didn’t blow me away.
Overall I was a little disappointed by Nintendo. Pretty light on things to show but they are usually pretty good with announcing things throughout the year so its not that big of a deal. Hard to believe that technically this now marks the actual start of E3. Can’t wait to be able to watch the Giant Bomb night shows!
Ok so that's Sony done. What a weird press conference, I don't know what they were thinking with the formatting of this one. Opening with a shaky camera, with poor audio, in a weird room was hard to believe they have far and away the most successful console this generation.
Once we finally got to the Last of Us Part 2 trailer the room choice started to make a bit more sense. Man this game is pretty, seriously impressive tech. Didn't really need to be sold on it though. Just tell me Naughty Dog are making something and I am there.
Then it was a hard swing to an intermission with a panel to announce some stuff. Honestly forgot most of the things that were talked about here due to a combination of disbelief, confusion and tiredness. Shawn talking about the games being highlighted as the 4 pillars made me feel bad for Sony Bend. I don't think their game looks very good, seems crazy that Sony are making 2 zombie games at once, but felt bad for them none the less.
Another musical number before our first real look at Ghost of Tsushima. Man another really pretty game. They must have some graphics wizards over at Sony. Very excited for this. I have loved Sucker Punch's output over the years. Thinking I will play this in Japanese which is very unlike me.
Our brief glimpse of Remedy's new game Control, looks like it could be a fun Quantum Break. That was maybe a bit mean, I thought that game was ok. Eager to see more of it. I have zero interest in the Resident Evil 2 remake. Good to see they obviously put in some work for it but I could never get into that series.
Next Trover Saves The Universe? Rick & Morty but not Rick & Morty? I have gotten to the point where I think Justin Roiland's type of comedy(?) is not for me. I watched the first 2 seasons of R&M and liked them just fine but since then between the fan base and Accounting (which I thought was just complete garbage) I just can't get into it. More Kingdom Hearts 3... with Pirates Of The Caribbean? That was weird, pretty good likenesses though. Still no interest in actually playing the game itself however.
Death Stranding was up next. A huge amount of hype from people around this given how little we actually know about it. I agree with the sentiment of the GB staff though that it showed very poorly here. We are no closer to understanding what it actually is and it showed largely the same themes from last year. I wouldn't say I am a huge Kojima fan but mostly enjoyed MGS4 & 5, the only ones I actually played. This is definitely a wait and see for me.
Quick announcement that Team Ninja are making another Nioh. Never got around to paying the last one but its near the top of my backlog pile. Spiderman looks like it will be great. Very Batman-esque combat and traversal looks like fun. Getting some Protoype (which I liked) vibes.
Not my favorite conference so far. They have some really good looking games that I am very excited to play. Kind of hope they look at the Microsoft presentation from this year and copy that format for next year. This one felt like it was kind of thrown together, weirdly paced and a bit low rent. Very much not like the "premium" company image Sony usually tries to present itself with.
All done for today, up again at 2:00am for Nintendo tomorrow :)
So, ummm, that was Ubisoft. To be honest I kind of liked the opening. Couldn't care less about the game but at least Ubisoft knows how to put on a show. I was hoping the Panda was Michael Ironside personally.
Beyond Good & Evil 2 continues to perplex me. I never played the first but even I can tell this is a very different thing. My guess is it will come out slightly after Elder Scrolls 6. The player collaboration/content creation stuff was putting up big warning signs for me to start with but may actually end up being kind of cool.
Good to see they are still very much supporting and adding content to Rainbow 6 Siege, not personally interested in the game, but cool for those that are. The whole announcement of the documentary felt weird and, its hard to explain, reflective in a away that doesn't makes sense to me for a game that is still pretty new. I like Trials so am excited to play more, this one looks good.
A hard tonal shift to The Division 2. Don't think the trailer was particularly good but am ready to get back into that franchise. Announcement of raids is cool but is ultimately content I will never get to play, unless they do matchmaking. Free DLC is much appreciated. Fell off Mario & Rabbids pretty hard, not sure if I would go back to it for the Donkey Kong DLC but I love me some Grant Kirkhope so that was cool.
Skull and Bones should be right up my alley. I love the ship combat from Assassin's Creed but the existence of Sea Of Thieves makes this a little weird for me. Would be eager to check out a beta. That Elijah Wood game Transference is not for me at all. Seems like any number of other scary games, VR or otherwise, you find on Steam. Just with maybe better production values.
I really don't know about StarLink. Seems like it should have come out several years ago when people were more enthusiastic about toys to life stuff. Could be ok if the gameplay side holds up but from the little that was shown here I am not convinced. The Star Fox inclusion is both unexpected and totally makes sense. But at the same time feels like they may be trying distract people from appears to be shaping up as a bit of a fizzer. Miyamoto is an absolute treasure.
For Honor, another one of those games from Ubi that was rough at launch but seems like they turned it around. Not personal investment in this game either but cool that there is more content for those that like it. I was super excited for The Crew 1. I was hopeful even after being super disappointed by the beta. I still bought the full game but didn't ultimately play it much, you can't have a driving game where the cars have bad handling... that's all there is! Sucks to hear that the sequel appears to be following the same route. I will probably give this a miss.
Lastly Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Man it looks a whole hell of a lot like the last one, that not a bad thing necessarily as I loved Origins, so am looking forward to playing this one. Weird though that it is set before Origins. Seems like the modern day timeline will tie it in somehow.
And then it ended. Was expecting a "one more thing" from Yves, all signs pointed to Splinter Cell, but not this year. Agree with the guys though that if it was supposed to be AC: O then that wouldn't have done it anyway. Another ok press conference overall. Not much in terms of new announcements but I guess that Ubisoft's MO these days is to launch a game and support the hell out of it, which as a consumer that enjoys a lot of their games is pretty awesome. Just makes for a slightly disappointing E3 presentation.
This was an ok showing from Square. They have some good looking stuff coming and a couple of new announcements. Suprised that we didn't see the Avengers game, which makes me think that that thing is not close at all or is being saved for Sony, and nothing about the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, not that I really care about it though.
I am looking forward to Tomb Raider, its seems like more Tomb Raider mixed with Batman. I wasn't as high on Rise Of The Tomb Raider as most people seem to be but loved that first one. Haven't played FF14 and don't plan on starting now. The crossover with Monster Hunter World was pretty unexpected though. Also haven't played Life is Strange so Captain Spirit isn't doing it for me. First time I have seen anything from Dragon Quest XI but remember the 8-4 guys loving it. Will definitely be picking this one up, last one I played was Starry Skies and loved it.
Babylon's Fall looks promising but we really don't know much about it. Seeing a PlatinumGames logo on it has me both excited and cautious (hopefully this is made by good Platinum). I keep forgetting about the existence of Octopath Traveller so every time I see the art style it blows me away. Just hope the game part of it holds up. Again Just Cause 4 looks cool, just hope I enjoy it more than 3. I have no idea what to expect from The Quiet Man. Never played a Kingdom Hearts game and man some of the dialogue in this trailer was bad. Probably give this one a miss, don't think I was to go back and play all the previous ones.
Overall it was fine, a lot of what they showed did not have an Xbox logo on it which I found interesting. They can get away with a shorter, more sparse showing with the Nintendo Direct style presentation which I thought was pretty well paced and produced. Happy to be up at 3am to hear some Keith David :) On to Ubisoft!
Man I was really board for a large chunk of this conference. The pausing after every sentence for applause and jokes(?) that didn't land at all really started to grate on me. They got there in the end, but for most of this I would prefer to watch the EA conference again. *holds for laugh/applause*
Starting with another developer video and then the Andrew W.K thing was a painfully slow start. Rage 2 looks like it could be good. With what Bethesda have done with Doom and Wolfenstein, it gives me a lot of confidence I wouldn't otherwise have that they could turn it in to something special. Don't really care about Elder Scrolls Online or the card game so it was hard to stay awake during these parts. Loved the DOOM reboot so excited to see more on the way. Hopefully it is a proper single player sequel, the subtitle did give me pause. I love me some Quake but Champions doesn't seem to be what I am looking for. Will happily play Q3A any day of the week.
Never finished Prey, didn't love what I played of it but good to see its getting plenty of post release support. Also excited to play more Wolfenstein. I don't have the same reservations that some of the GB team have. I have full confidence we will return to BJ killing MechaHitler. Still not sure if that Skyrim Alexa thing is a joke or not. If done right that could be kind of cool. Not a fan of the Fallout games so 76 wasn't very exciting for me either. Seems like its very ambitious but given the studios track record with game polish, bugs and stuff we will have to see if they can pull it off.
I don't know about anyone else but the idea of Elder Scrolls: Blades is not for me at all. Playing that sort of game on a phone is the last thing I want to be spending my time on. Controls with either virtual joysticks or tap-to-move... no thanks. Regardless I'm sure it will be crazy popular anyway. Finally we got a tease for Starfield. Granted we know pretty much nothing about it but sci-fi it way more my jam than a fantasy or post-apocalyptic one. Also announcing Elder Scrolls 6 was pretty smart, just to get people to shut up... even if its going to be like 8 years away.
I guess overall they did end up justifying holding another press conference this year... but a lot of the games they develop just aren't for me. Was tough to watch especially after the very well done Xbox conference.
This was a good conference, well done Microsoft. Lots of stuff to be excited about and a seriously thinking of upgrading to an Xbox One X now and signing up for Game Pass.
Wish DMC was getting done by Ninja Theory but still looks good. Can't wait for Cyberpunk 2077! Division 2 looks like more Division, I played the hell out of that first game and will probably do the same here. I play all the Forza games, but wasn't super excited coming into this one. Looks like they are making some pretty good changes in this one that is keeping me interested. Didn't like the first Dying Light but the sequel looks promising. Hoping I like Just Cause 4 more than I did the last one. Don't like any of FromSoftware's games and the trailer here did nothing for me either. Crackdown is still looking rough and could not care any less about a new Battletoads.
Best moment of the whole thing was when the Gears logos comes up on screen, the crowd gets hyped and then frigging Gears themed Pop Vinyl figures jump through it. I completely lost it. I wished they had just left it there with no other Gears announcements. Saying that Gear Tactics looks like it could be really cool, I love XCOM. Still havn't got around to playing Gears 4 so will have to get that done before 5 and don't know enough about Halo Infinite at this stage.
They finally showed some games you want to play. I can't remember the last time I turned on my Xbox that wasn't to watch something on Plex but with these new studio acquisitions and roadmap they have me very excited with what is to come.
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