Congrats to @hashy for winning the first ever PC banner contest! He dominated the ballot box while chumley_marchbanks' "sink" and defe's "Game Genie" ended up tied for second place.

The Official E3 2015 PC Gaming Show Discussion

It's officially E3 time, duders! If you haven't experienced the insanity of E3 before, the show starts off with press conferences from each of the three console makers as well as a few of the largest publishers in the industry. These presentations are prime real estate for game announcements, debut trailers, live gameplay demonstrations, and meme origins.

In an attempt to keep the E3 shenanigans organized, the mods institute these official discussion threads for each conference so that everybody has a go-to place to discuss them before, during, and after the show.

Keep Discussions On Topic

This thread is exclusively for the general discussion of the PC conference. Only discussion of the PC press conference is allowed. Discussion involving the other company's conferences should be taken to their respective threads (once they're posted). And don't even think about going off-topic or derailing the thread with your thoughts on the Women's World Cup match.

Specific Announcements

E3 is THE place for announcing never before seen games. It's exciting, fast-paced stuff and we're all enthusiastic to start talking about all the new toys. But, please keep in-depth discussions about specific games in their respective forums. For more information about how to help us keep things organized, go check out the E3 2015 and You!thread.

To help you get where you need to go to talk about anything announced or shown during this press conference, we have created a list of them right here:

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Despite the insanity of E3, keep in mind that the general site rules still apply. So, don't be a dick. If you need a refresher on how to conduct yourself like an upstanding citizen of the Giant Bomb community, check out the FAQ.

When/Where Can I Watch?

• Tuesday, June 16 @ 5:00 PM PDT - Belasco Theater (Local Time)

If you know of any others, let me know!

• TwitchTV

Quality banner!@hashy

@marino: Your link to the twitchTV stream has a spelling error in it.

Thanks, guys! I knew @hashy had it when I looked through those banners, so I'm pleased with a tie for second.

I completely forgot about this one! Are they planning on talking over this like the other press conferences?

@marino: Hey, there's a typo in your twitch link (missing the h!)

Fixed.

There will not be commentary on this one.

Does anyone have any idea what this actually is about? In my (dream-like) mind, this would ideally showcase Oculus/Valve VR, Xcom 2, Fortnite, Kingdom Come, Unreal Tournament, Blizzard (HotS, Hearthstone expansion, Overwatch), that new Warhammer and presumably some new hardware from AMD.

@defe: *High five*

@chumley_marchbanks: Right back atcha

I think this should be a good show. Day[9] hosting and he's hinted at some stuff that might be cool?!

This is as if the Windows Phone people are holding a press conference on mobile games instead of the iOS or the Android people. AMD is not in any way an authority on PC games, their driver support is sub-par, and their competitor basically rules the hardware market.

I'm not hating on AMD, but I'm saying I don't think the conference will have enough quality because AMD is no Valve (Steam) and no Nvidia. Why the hell are they doing it?

This thing can't really be three hours long, can it?

@zechs_marquise: No

Looks like it clashes with their livestream too which is unfortunate. The actual PC gamer live show is on in an hour.

Super excited for this one! Seems like the wildcard of E3!

Wait, an hour long quiz show? WHAT?!

They advertised the wrong time. They advertised the time the STREAM starts, but not the time the SHOW starts which is an hour later. What the fuck kind of unprofessional shit is this? Is THIS really your answer to the other Pressers? Also they managed to invite no women which might seem impossible if you'd seen the other pressers. Somehow they managed to beat the odds! Ugh.

What a shit show. I hope PC Gamer doesn't do this again. I'll watch it because I'm a captive audience for Heroes of the Storm. You should avoid it though.

Boy this start is something...

That was the wankiest thing I saw all E3 and I saw Sony's presser. Fucking hell, the PC Gaming Crowd is impressed with himself.

Boo who cares about Killing Floor get to Heroes and Hearthstone!

Wasn't expecting much, but oh boy this is gonna be a drag, isn't it ?

This thing is basically a late night infomercial.

I guess that's why they let people build it up in their mind and never really said anything about it.

AMD dun fuckin up son.

This is awful. Day9 is trying but there's only so much you can do when you're talking up a Radeon guy and you have to mention you're a "PC Gamer" because you're doing a show for PCGamer. Miserable.

This seems like a show for people who don't want to see new games. All these games are old. Including the two games I want to see, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm. Well, Heroes isn't exactly old... but it's out. Most games at E3 conferences aren't out because hearing people talk about released games during E3 is dull. It's fucking E3! Talk about games I've not heard of before.

Killer Instinct to PC. Yeah, I'm excited for this. Been really wanting to try this.

I feel like I'm the only person enjoying this show. I like the late night interview style. Killer Instinct on PC is exciting. Hopefully this isn't just lip service from Phil Spencer. Everyone is talking up DX12 so hopefully Microsoft keeps recognizing the PC as a game platform.

@baysidejr: One exciting announcement over 1 hour does not a good show make. I suppose it's 2 actually, counting American Truck Simulator. Two announcements spread out over an hour is not an exciting presser.

Xbox is one of the primary sponsors for the thing (#2 on the list after AMD), so it makes sense that there would be plenty of time given to DX12, Xbox controllers, and maybe even Windows 10.

That Roller Coaster game looks cool. I liked Roller Coaster Tycoon when I was 13. I would like to play a new version of that.

I feel like I got no info on it though. In any other conference they'd talk about the cool things. They'd say "It'll have Occulus support so it'll be like a Customizable version of that Coaster demo. *Applause* NOT ONLY THAT but you can visit your friends park and ride on their rides! *Bigger applause* Here's a small philosophical nothing that amounts to 'we think having friends is cool' that explains why we're doing good multiplayer/community stuff."

Killer Instinct you say? Fan-fucking-tastic! That's pretty exciting, but I wonder what, if anything, it'll do to the game's population. Well, more specifically it's tournament numbers. Either way, I'm hype. Sadira, Maya, and Orchid in 4K? My mind...my mind is esploderizing

How much longer until Blizzard, goddddd. All I care about about "PC Gaming" quote unquote is Blizzard. It's cool that they managed to get some women on stage though.

Honestly even though there wasn't really that much announced, I did find myself enjoying the format. It felt to me like how a video game awards show should go. The fact that it was just them bringing out developers and having a little late night tv show styled interview with them while they show off their game was something nice and relaxing to watch. Granted, I was also multi-tasking so maybe I would have been bored if I was just sitting there watching and not doing anything while I wait for the next huge announcement that never came.

If we compare it to the developer press conferences, then yeah it was a bit dull. I'd say that is only because of a lack of exciting new content though. Sean hosting and the structure of the event itself felt like it hit the right marks for me. It didn't feel cheap and it didn't feel like something that made me feel awkward watching it (except for a couple people who weren't the best at being on stage, but can't blame them for that.).

I give it a good first attempt at getting some kind of e3 show going for PC. There wasn't any moment where I found myself rolling my eyes like I do with every other conference and with any VGA that ever get's produced, so good on them. I'd like to see what they can do with it given more chances. Hopefully they can bring some more people in with more surprises and get Sean back as a host next year.

Day9 is one charismatic motherfucker and was a great choice for something like this. I didn't mind the interview format at all, it just needed to be more punchy and less of a marketing vehicle for AMD

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: Definitely the highlight of this show!

That was a shit show. 4 announcements of note in 2 and a half hours is not a good format. Should've been an hour. Should've just been Blizzard and a few lucky guests who actually have shit to announce and show. No trailers for games already out for fuck's sake. Should've just been the roller coaster thing, the truck thing, killer instinct PC, Blizzard (cough, more Blizzard actually) and like 2-3 other things.

Really good announcement out of Heroes of the Storm. Leoric looks great! I love how he becomes a wraith when he dies. All I know about DOTA is what Brad's explained in passing. As a result I understand why that's hilarious. Also it sound really cool mechanically. He gets to harass people when dead and, the more he harasses, the faster he comes back. I only wonder if that'll actually be useful. Typically if you have to die to use a talent... it's not a great Talent. Still, Uther's got an insane talent at level 20 that's basically this. If that's insane this should also be insane.

Also Monk sounds great! That the first talent determines his trait which determines whether he plays as a support or as a more support/assassin hybrid is really cool. Should hopefully make him a really flexible choice. In any case having a Diablo Support is awesome because it'll make clearing Diablo quests and Support quests at the same time possible. Rad! Will be a good August hero probably.

Seriously, did anything get announced? Like, even outside of games? Windows 10 and Xbox One interactivity? Crossplay? Anything interesting get talked about at all?

@hypnotoadbrwowrowrow: KI and Gears PC, AMD's boxed PC offering, Pillars of Eternity expansion, the Starcraft missions and Heroes of the Storm expansion, Rising Storm 2, Guild Wars stuff

@hashy: Thanks

WHOAAAA! No Man's Sky releasing on PC same day as PS4! Yes. I was very conflicted when the release date was earlier for PS4, but the PC version was going to "do more."

THIS is what I needed out of the PC show.

20 minutes into the actual show, I'm kinda bored. Good thing I have the show on the side while I play Witcher 3.

So, announcements of note:

• Killer Instinct on PC (possible cross-platform play or account transfer)
• Gears of War Ultimate Edition coming to PC
• American Truck Simulator announced with trailer
• release date for SOMA (amnesia successor) - 22 September 2015
• Pillars of Eternity: The White March - expansion (for a Kickstarter game? i find it weird)
• Rising Storm 2 announced
• Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns trailer
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided gameplay footage (looks cool)
• ArmA 3 gets a new map
• DayZ will get an offline (singleplayer) mode
• Starcraft 2 prologue missions for Legacy of the Void revealed with trailer
• Total War Warhammer trailer
• Dean Hall talking a lot about Ion without actually saying anything (its emergent narrative MMO...)
• Frontier announced spiritual successor to Rollercoaster Tycoon called "Planet Coaster"
• content update for Heroes of the Storm (including Monk from Diablo 3)
• AMD revealed dual-GPU card, announced Radeon R9 Fury and R9 Fury X

I think that should be all.

Nice to have an announcement summary! Not sure If I'll go back and watch the whole thing but definitely will check out the trailers.

The show was ok, but it was too long. If it happens again, trim down the guest list for next year, keep it to 90 minutes, max. Or do two shows, and bill it as a daily E3 wrap up show. It was kinda like watching Gamespot's stuff from the show floor, but with PC stuff being shown instead of a mix of everything. Next time, call it a talk show, not a conference. It was an interesting talk show, but a fairly boring conference.

AMD needs to use less marketing words and more technical specs. They announced their new card but said almost nothing about what it can do other than the fact that it's small. Not even an estimated or target benchmark, numbers people could have in their head for what "the next generation" of AMD GPUs will be. If they're not close enough to release this stuff, they're just wasting time showing it.

I'd prefer AMD (or nVidia) not be involved as a backer, mostly because it introduces an awkward conflict - do games partnered with nVidia/AMD get snubbed, etc.

Nice to see Phil Spencer. MS isn't jumping in with two feet again, but I think Phil knows he needs to take it slow and regain some trust first, before jumping into some kind of large initiative on PC. People were burned by GFWL, and he's wise to only bring a couple crossplay games in for Win10 before comitting to something that could easily fail without user support. I hated GFWL too, but I like Phil. He's done a great job turning Xbox around, made a lot of decisions that are consumer friendly. I feel positive about the whole thing.

A lot of double-showing with Sony/MS/S-E shows, especially since many games only have one E3 trailer, but I liked seeing Deus Ex gameplay, and the side by side shots of all their technical engine bits.

I will say Day9 did great as the host, but I feel like his hands were tied when it comes to trying to move through the guest list faster. He's got character and he's better at talking to crowds than most of the presenters at E3, especially stream audiences.

Finally - streaming on twitch at 30fps was a bit silly. For PC games, I think they really ought to be showing everything at 1080p/60, instead of having it all downscaled by the stream.

Okay, so the show wasn't great, but they did have some interesting announcements. All in all, it was a weird infomercial... thing. The only good thing about it was having it on in the background as I watched the GB Live Show last night, so I was able to hear any announcements that I wanted to and ignore the boring stuff, which was plentiful.

But hot damn, I want to play SOMA right now. That was literally the only thing in the last half of the show that I perked up for. I was hoping it was going to be at the Playstation conference, but seeing it at the PC show was a nice surprise. Anyway, SOMA looks dope as heck.

This is very good news.

They should've had fewer guests and given them more time. It felt like dudes were coming on stage and being ushered off way too rapidly, especially poor Phil Spencer.

@kubqo: Thanks for the summary. I tuned in for about 12 minutes and it was just a bunch of AMD engineers and marketing people talking about power consumption and billions of transistors on a high budget public access TV set, so I had to turn it off again.

Great news about KI for windows, have been wanting to check that out, just not enough to buy an xbox for.