Julius

Sounds fantastic! IGN with the scoops, go figure Not having to follow an order for the major areas makes a lot of sense, I was a bit worried that they might have some gating there, so glad that they've come right out and said it. Open world being multiplayer is in line with what I thought the trailer and website were hinting at, think that's a smart move too, I imagine there will be plenty of boss-type encounters in the open world anyways to keep groups busy. Fall damage being low for the sake of exploration reminds me of how generous Xenoblade Chronicles is with its open world traversal. Cool that the game will have a world map, I'm curious if there will be a mini-map or not? I'd imagine not, but if there is, could see myself turning it off like I did with Breath of the Wild, because I enjoyed the game a whole lot more from doing that. Playtime for the crit path, just looking at my From games with HLTB story times on them, seems exactly in line with previous From games, which sounds good to be honest, as a real danger with many open worlds is just filling them with extra stuff just to have a "full" map. Everything we're seeing so far is giving me greater Berserk vibes than even what I've seen of some of the other From games that I've yet to play, which is really exciting. Shame IGN didn't ask Miyazaki about Miura's recent passing, I've heard he's a big fan of the series and so it would have been nice to hear some words from him, it's clearly had a big inspiration on the direction of From Software games for the last decade plus. I'm not getting my hopes up for it to be there, but Bandai Namco is holding their E3 event tomorrow, and at the moment we haven't heard so much as a peep about it outside of it being on the E3 schedule (Bandai Namco themselves haven't tweeted about last I checked). I remember From at a "normal" E3 seemed to be pretty good at giving people hands-on time so we could hear impressions and see a bit more gameplay, so while I'm not expecting it, I don't think it's entirely impossible? Could absolutely just be a Scarlet Nexus and Tales of Arise blowout, though.

Major Inside vibes, for sure, but it's not! We've already seen a few screenshots of their next game @Ronnie I did some more digging and it turns out this does have a connection to Playdead: Dino Patti was one of the co-founders of Playdead, but left to found Jumpship (pretty apt name for the studio considering the context) after a fairly messy split from Playdead. From the company's Wikipedia page, which gives a good abbreviated version of events: From the rest of what I can find on Playdead it seems that Jensen was more the creative mind, while Patti was the one more attached to the business side of things. A real shame they split, but seems to be a boon for us players. If Somerville delivers it could feel like doubling the output of Playdead-like games, fingers crossed we see Playdead's next game sooner rather than later, as it's been a while!

Yeah, this looks absolutely incredible. I laughed so hard when they talked about their 12K sky capturing, because it's so absurdly above and beyond! The wait for the dream of a Forza Horizon in Japan to be realised continues, though (Mexico does look great, I just want to see Mt Fuji in one of these games!). Forza is the biggest reason for me at the moment for wanting to pick up an Xbox right now and seemingly at any point in the near future. Before I got a PS4 I got an Xbox 360, mainly because it was more affordable for my parents at the time, but also because I loved cars and wanted to check out Forza. I was reading every car magazine I could get my hands on, subscribed to a few (I actually cancelled my monthly subscription and I ended up getting another year's worth of Top Gear sent for free following that!), and still have the Forza Motorsport 4 limited edition I got with the console (actually bought it well ahead of my birthday just to make sure I didn't miss out!), and loved the first Forza Horizon too. Even now, some 5+ years after I moved away from a 360 to a PS4 and longer than that since I played a brand new Forza, I still find it very difficult to truly enjoy my time in a lot of racing games because of how much I enjoyed what I remember about the particular feel of Forza. Just driving around in a Horizon game rather than lapsing and returning to FIFA sounds so appealing to me, and it's a big part of why I want Xbox to come out with a couple more things that I truly feel that I have to pick up one of their consoles for, so that I have a way to justify it: at the moment it's Forza, Halo, Rare Replay and some indie games, but I personally have a hard time justifying a pretty big purchase with only those. Playground working on Fable too makes me wonder if Xbox are going to position them similarly to how Nintendo positions MonolithSoft, a couple of their own IP but then potentually aiding in open world design for other studios. Heck, even looking at Halo Infinite, I question why Playground seemingly haven't been made to lend a hand and support with the open world, as that would seem a very appropriate use of their talents.

It's in alphabetical order rather than order of the shows, but PC Gamer have a running list of all the games we've seen this E3. Unfortunately it only seems to answer the question of whether it's coming to PC or not rather than listing all platforms, but all of the trailers are there for each game, so if anything catches your eye on there I guess you could scroll to the end to see the platforms it's coming to? EDIT: for something a bit more comprehensive, RockPaperShotgun have features on each of the events so far, including a breakdown of the announcements and some trailers: Summer Game Fest Ubisoft Forward Guerrilla Collective Day 2 Xbox & Bethesda Showcase Square Enix Presents PC Gaming Show

I've watched it back a couple of times since and while I do appreciate it setting the tone, I still think it sends out a confusing message about where the game is at in its production. According to Schreier it's currently pre-alpha, and it likely got hit by COVID like everything else did, yet we still have a firm release date for it nearly a year and a half away. That's either confidence to the point of hubris or sheer stupidity in that they're going to aim to launch then no matter the cost, such is silly because it puts completely unnecessary pressure on the developers. There's a massive potential for further delays due to COVID and working from home, and while I wish that team the best and hope they hit that date, they just have easily could've said Holiday 2022 and keep it vague. I guess it's because of how they did 11/11/11 for Skyrim and want to follow suit, but again, feel like that probably could've waited. I can only come at this from the perspective of a consumer, but I go into E3 wanting to come away with excitement for these publishers' games and a desire to play them. While publishers might get away with just turning up and phoning it in, a great presentation is just as powerful as a bad one. It's glorified marketing, and the whole point of turning up at E3 these days is to sell us on games directly, so I think any publishers phoning it in are missing out on potential sales if they have a poor showing. I think back to the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo at E3 2019, or Nintendo focusing almost entirely on Breath of the Wild at E3 2016: both were cases where the games were clearly presented, their mechanics shown off, and many came away with a reason to be confident about those games and a stronger desire to buy them. Maybe I'm the only one then, but I genuinely loved that January Switch presentation. Opening up with how much it was going to cost around the world, telling us subscription-based online wasn't ready but a service was on its way, walking us through things like battery life, the Joy-Con, etc. It had a strong selection of games turn up, I think the weak link was probably third party ("Dragon Quest XI is still coming to Japan" felt pretty tone deaf when we were still waiting to hear about a western release), and that Breath of the Wild trailer that closed it is one of my favourite game trailers. Oh yeah, it's definitely fair to go in with lowered expectations, but after a year off, I can't fault anyone for being excited going into this year's E3 and being disappointed by how it eventually panned out (at least so far). Again, the publishers knew expectations would be heightened, yet knowing this no-one tried to temper expectations except Nintendo, and that was purely because of rumours that could potentially impact their stock prices in a drastic way. I'm not expecting the world from Nintendo going into Tuesday, but their show was the one I was most excited for anyways. I'll gladly take a Breath of the Wild sequel trailer and title, but if it ends up aiming to be out by the end of this financial year, I wouldn't be shocked if it showed up for a short while at Treehouse.

From bad to worse for Square Enix. The demo is currently unplayable as it is corrupted (a widespread issue):

Like you I have games I'm excited for from this E3 (mostly indies, actually), and while I get where you're coming from and do think expectations perhaps should have been lowered given the events of the last 12+ months, the fact that we didn't have an E3 last year meant that going into these past few days just wasn't going to be possible. I feel like there was a real hunger for a week of focused news and people genuinely excited to see good games. I think the wider issue is that while I get wanting to return to normalcy, all of these companies announced their own E3 events of their own accord: they didn't need to be here, and everyone could've pulled an EA and scheduled something for later in the summer (which is looking like a wise move now in hindsight) if they didn't want that pressure. Because, like it or not, having a show at E3 comes with the baggage of what we've seen at past E3's, some stronger than others sure, but it means you have something worthy of sharing in my eyes, and if you don't, either don't attend, or manage expectations ahead of time. We know not to expect a potential new Switch model on Tuesday during the Direct purely because Nintendo managed expectations, and to be fair I think they're really good at communicating with their audience (the Metroid Prime 4 delay video from Takahashi comes to mind). It takes balls to do that and not hide behind false pretences, it's one of the things I respect most about Nintendo. For example, we saw Starfield today for the first time in an official capacity in 3 years (!), and we saw startlingly little that would inform us about the game that we couldn't already try to guess at from the initial CG announcement in 2018. I'm more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that their workflow, like everyone else's, has been impacted these last 12+ months, but even then, that's 2 years of potential development time since then, so it's tough to believe that's all they've got. Especially considering they went ahead and have a specific release date for late next year, I think it's difficult to appreciate the game being delayed but then giving it a hard date so far out when there is a huge potential for more delays in the next 18 months or so. This game didn't need to be here at all in my eyes and could easily have been saved for next year's E3, but Xbox clearly pushed for this in order to strengthen their show (I think it managed the opposite). I really don't know what to expect going into Tuesday, but Nintendo have more pressure on them than anyone else in my eyes, and they will know this. They do weird as hell things, but it's exactly that difficulty to predict what they'll do next that makes them so alluring as a developer, publisher, and platform holder. My fingers are crossed for a good show from them, as they have been for most of the other shows these last few days.

The Square Enix conference hurt a whole lot. The Guardians of the Galaxy game actually looks decent, had a fun trailer and some nice interviews, it coming in October meant a bit of a blowout with gameplay was probably a good idea, but it taking up nearly half of the show is when alarm bells started to ring. Also while it was fun in the demo, feel like the constant back and forth has the potential to get tiresome fast. Then we get Final Fantasy I - VI all getting remastered, seemingly based on their initial releases, the one thing that I've been nagging on and on about incessantly for the last few years...and it's for PC and mobile. Square Enix then proceeded to beat us over the head with the Final Fantasy Main Theme not just once, but twice (!) in a row for their mobile games after showing off the Mana remake. Hoo boy. Real shades of the whole Final Fantasy VII PS4 port fiasco that happened at PlayStation Experience 2014, when everything they were showing and saying seemed to be screaming Remake but instead it ended up being the PC port coming to PS4: this isn't really what anyone was asking for or wanted. It's the 35th anniversary next year, we knew that going in, and while we could still end up seeing it brought across in the future in some capacity, that is something I have little interest in actively bringing up. If it happens I'll be over the moon but S-E don't deserve my optimism for that anymore. They're the games which defined Square for so long, damn it, they deserve good and easily accessible versions on modern consoles. Other than that, Babylon's Fall looked reeeeeeal rough. We last saw that game a year and a half ago and it looks far worse than it did then (some of those textures...urgh), and I left the trailer wondering if it was multiplayer or if those other characters were controlled by AI? The fact that I can't be bothered to look it up says it all really, and the nerve they have showing this off and promising post-launch content. And then there's Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Stupid title by the way. I was watching Kyle Bosman's Delayed Input the other day and he was absolutely right: the image you have in your head of Final Fantasy Souls is not what this game is going to be. But I didn't expect it to take such a drastic turn, and yes, it looks like a massive letdown. A prequel or alternative story of Final Fantasy I where you get to where this armour would have been awesome: Maybe stick with the Amano artstyle, heck seeing as it's a 35th anniversary game maybe have different sections be from different points in the franchise, and so on. It was really easy to let it run away with itself in our heads, and Team Ninja was doing it too? Single player, Team Ninja developed, Final Fantasy Souls for the 35th anniversary taking place around the first game - what doesn't sound awesome about that? Instead we're getting what looks like a drastic reminder that just because Square Enix has started to take strides in the right direction the last few years - finally getting Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts III, and Final Fantasy VII Remake out of the doors while continuing to build well on Final Fantasy XIV - it doesn't mean they aren't going to be prone to missteps, and I think it's the fact that we saw not just one with this game, but two with the I - VI remasters, that rightly has everyone a bit on edge. These should have been relatively easy wins to take some of the pressure off XVI and Creative Business Unit III, who are also still hard at work on Endwalker, and somehow there's now more pressure on that game than there was before. It's insane to me. We'll probably see XVI at the next PlayStation event, whenever that will be, but it was rough today. I've still downloaded the demo and will be checking it out due to sheer curiosity, though. How can you not be curious about this? It looks like a trainwreck. Square Enix didn't bring their A-game today and they know it, they didn't treat what should have been the biggest week of gaming news this year in E3 as they should have. Despite their own issues in their shows, so far only Summer Game Fest and Xbox seem to have got that memo and put on a show (Geoff pulling off the Elden Ring reveal continues to go up in my estimation, and I genuinely might re-score earlier conferences based on how poorly E3 has gone so far). My Totally Official Score: being burned by the rage of a thousand suns (so probably a 4/10; trust me, Gearbox was worse) As @Hero-of-Time rightly points out, everyone wants to do their own thing and spread their news out (Ubisoft gave Xbox the better Far Cry 6 trailer, for crying out loud!), and I guess this is the drawback to Nintendo's Direct model doing so well. Everyone seems so confident E3, doing their own thing, but the thing is not everyone has the catalogue of Nintendo's IP's (actually, no-one does, and even Sony who are arguably the closest to their output in terms of consistent quality are very predictable) and the potential to blow us away on a pretty regular basis. It took a good year or so for PlayStation's State of Play to figure out it's flow, and I imagine it will take these other companies even longer than that, which means gaming news for the next year is only going to feel even worse. And I thought last summer was bad I think a huge part missing from E3 is the in-between, interviews and gameplay snippets filtering through from the show floor, hearing about behind-closed-doors demos and shady backdoor deals. It's a good thing the football has been on, because it's pretty much watching an E3 event and then moving onto something else, rather than being consumed by it. Even Nintendo have cut their Treehouse down to 3 hours this year. Expectations are low going into Capcom tomorrow, where I have little at stake but want to see someone else be happy this E3, be it something as big as Dragon's Dogma II or as small as Village DLC. Nintendo are impossible to predict, so just give me a title for the Breath of the Wild sequel and that will genuinely be enough after these other shows. The bar is that low.

It's real! Demo coming soon to PS5 and will be multiplatform. Not at all what I expected Final Fantasy x Souls to look like, and that dialogue...

Tetsuya Nomura, Team Ninja, this is it!

Not sure if Babylon's Fall is multiplayer or not from this trailer, might be a Granblue Fantasy ReLink situation where they can be controlled by AI but also have others come in to control them?

Oh my goodness stop with the FF music Square I'm already dying over here

WAIT WHAT EDIT: NOOOOOOOO WHY SQUARE

We're nearly 20 minutes in, my optimism is slipping

Denial, anger, and bargaining. Nice to know I'm not the only one going through the stages of grief over Final Fantasy right now

Oh wow we're getting a look at gameplay for it too, good stuff. I've managed to convince myself that opening with this means we're ending on something Final Fantasy. Someone please talk me down from this ledge

Makes sense with that release date, damn that's pretty soon, nice stuff! No pressure on whoever is curating the tracks for this game, but hoo boy, this game could be a licensing nightmare in the future

Wow, starting with Eidos Montréal. This Guardians game better be single player... Also hell yeah, Matt Mercer as VO all day long

I absolutely will get back to this talk about Xbox, and I agree with a lot of what's been said, but I'm struggling to not have Square Enix on the mind right now, walked myself into a bit of a corner by asking that question but then needing to ravage some food before S-E Just one of XVI, that rumoured other Final Fantasy game you have in the works, or, the mainstay, a Final Fantasy I - VI Collection, will do for me here. Have me seriously concerned with XVI not being in the rundown for this, all fingers crossed!

Genuine question for those who feel this didn't move the needle for them in terms of getting a next-gen Xbox: what could Xbox's first party show that would get you onboard? I've been racking my brain the last 10 minutes and I'm drawing a blank, and I mean that as no disrespect to Xbox, but I just don't see them taking the risks I feel they should be at this point in terms of new IP. I think @Hero-of-Time is right when he points to the lack of Japanese games in the console as being a gap they've failed to address consistently, particularly in terms of exclusives. Nothing has really struck me as looking next-gen either, other than maybe Horizon 5, but even that is an open world racing game. There's nothing else that they have that comes remotely close to some of Sony's first party stuff visually, it all looks a little flat? Anyways, I thought Xbox & Bethesda had a really good show, but like others here, nothing really reaching out and grabbing me to the point where I'd buy a Series X right now. Of the games that I did find myself interested in, a lot of them are multiplatform or indie games, and not worth picking up a new console for in my eyes. That Starfield trailer was very disappointing. I understand that they might be going into alpha this summer (according to Schreier), but you absolutely could have put together a great CGI trailer for this game and shown off some mechanics that way. I came away from this not knowing anything more than the release date, and having a specific release date of 11th November 2022 seems very naive in these difficult times. I think the indie games were the strongest part of this show. Twelve Minutes still looks great, Party Animals looks like a whole lot of fun (I need to look it up, but probably by the Gang Beasts team? Seems to have the exact same mechanics at least), Somerville really grabbed my attention (though seemed desperate to draw INSIDE as a point of comparison), and I loved how Replaced looked with its pixel art against 3D backdrops, when that's pulled off well it looks fantastic. Highlights on the indie side of things for me were absolutely the new trailer for Eiyuden Chronicle (which we already knew about and which I'd already backed for a PlayStation copy of) and the spin-off side-scrolling game Eiyuden Chronicle: Uprising (which is the first time we've seen it). I love that art style, I love Suikoden and Suikoden II, and I trust that Murayama and the folks over at Rabbit & Bear will deliver. Forza Horizon 5 does look great, the Forza games are the biggest reason currently that I have to be interested in getting an Xbox (and it's not enough). And I forgot to mention it before, but A Pirate's Life, that Pirates of the Caribbean DLC for Sea of Thieves, looks like good fun too. Imagine it cost them a pretty penny, but absolutely worth it, glad that game has got the support it needed and those who stuck with it are being rewarded for it. Halo Infinite not having a demo drop here seems like missed potential, but not having a solid release date for Holiday 2021, when we have one for Starfield which is just under a year and a half away, is definitely cause for concern. The pessimistic take is that it needed major rework after its previous gameplay fallout and they're going to be grinding away until we get a release date a couple of months out, but what does it say that my optimistic take is that they're waiting to see what the plans of other developers are this Holiday before committing to a date? Still, it's by far the best overall show we've had at E3 from these last few days, better than many of their more recent E3 showings, but boy do they need to stop coming out and saying how great the show is going to be, how many games they're showing, how many of those are exclusive, etc. It's great for investors, but we don't care: nothing is going to sell us players on a game more than cutting to the chase and showing it to us. There's a reason that PlayStation and Nintendo have knocked it out of the park these last few years at events like these, and it's because they shut up and let the quality of their games do the talking. My Totally Official Score: 8.0/10

Not getting a Series X anytime soon but that Mini Fridge has me intrigued

No pressure Arkane, but you're finishing this show instead of Starfield or Halo, so...

I swear we saw that exact yellow painted church in Just Cause 3 getting flashbacks to the horrors I committed in that game... Yeah Playground are I believe, did they say if FH5 was Playground still like it was for the earlier Horizon games? Fable did seem to be early in the process from the CGI trailer to be honest

Forza Horizon 5. The Mexico leaks were real. The wait for Japan continues