Julius

I'm really liking what we've seen of the game so far, hopefully the weeks around it stay pretty empty so I can dive straight in!

"So, you're going to be born, huh?" That line from the MHS2 trailer feels simultaneously deep and ridiculous Terrible release date too, we get Skyward Sword HD the next week don't we? Feel like that game was going to have a tough time as it was, but yikes. Also, pretty sure they're hiding the gameplay so people go in thinking it's not what it is (turn-based)

That guy said "Wings of Ruin?" in the same cadence as "Metal Gear?" and I'm laughing my ass off right now

Sky: Children of the Light coming to Switch June 29th!

...aaaaaaand I regret my words and deeds (at least for the last 5 minutes or so? Tales of Arise still looks great. Finally getting a release date for the console version of Sky: Children of the Light! Even if we already knew it was coming in June And Planet of Lana looks gorgeous with that art style.

I thought it was going okay until about 15 minutes ago, pacing dropped off a cliff with all of the MMO and brand crossover talk. Right now I can feel every second passing. Sounds like it'll be worth it by the end, though

Am I the only one that thinks Solar Ash seems to be having a tough time showing itself off? It looks nice, but today it was just pressing R1 a bunch, and I don't remember it looking particularly great last time it was shown either

Probably closing the show, right? Geoff said the "endgame" was something we'd want to stick around for, so I wonder. Also, love the fact that during the show where we might get an Elden Ring trailer, someone is keeping an eye on the playlist

Having not played the game I was thinking it was just a normal scene from the game, but then the room layout looked super suspicious. And then the top-down. And the box. And the oranges. Damn it Kojima!

Kojima saying "one more thing" gave me a heart attack. I haven't played Death Stranding but holy f*** this feels like a Metal Gear tease all over. Just a PS5 upgrade right? Right?! Oh wow a Director's Cut, okay

The pixel art and animation in that trailer was great! Feels at the very least like it's destined for Switch (though hopefully it eventually comes to everything). Also, love how Keighley can't go many events without Kojima

Phil took out the finger guns today and took aim at PlayStation: Pretty sure we all know why they do that Phil I'm very much looking forward to seeing what Xbox's plans are with this, xCloud in particular. I wonder if we might see something announced to do with this during E3? One first party game every quarter (I would assume at a minimum) is bold, but it needs to be done at this point, especially after a pretty quiet start to life with the Series consoles; that's not a knock at all, I know it has an excellent back catalogue, but the shiny and new first party games just haven't been there yet. Still very curious to see how well those actually turn out and are managed by them in the long run, but I want to come away from the Xbox/Bethesda conference on Sunday keeping an eye out for a Series X, and consider getting one over a Switch Pro. The software is absolutely the missing piece right now, so if they can consistently get out quality games, then I imagine a lot of us will be there.

Honestly, it's hard to tell with Geoff. I thought that One Night Live last year at Gamescom was one of the worst shows I've seen put together in a while, but on the other hand, he knows he basically the big opening act for E3 this year (and by his own choice). PlayStation don't have their next event announced yet, so we could see something here (even if it's just an update on something we're already waiting on, like Kena, or a remind that R&C is out tomorrow), if Kojima is going to show anything this weekend I feel it'd be here rather than anywhere else (which I'm not optimistic about), and it's two years to the day that Elden Ring was officially announced; Geoff did get that original Sekiro tease at The Game Awards, so it's not like From Software are strangers to showing big things off at his shows. I'll be tuning in at least, kicks off my time off from work and gets me in the mood for a hopefully awesome E3 weekend!

Right, I think that's another big sell for me too: just the knowledge that if or when I decide to pull the trigger on an Xbox to get this, it will be on Game Pass and I probably won't buy it physically at full price (assuming it's an Xbox exclusive, which I imagine it would have to be). I would say it sucks before Bethesda, but with Microsoft's backing I suppose sales aren't going to be a massive concern for them, but I wonder if between this and Halo Infinite we'll start seeing figures thrown out there by Xbox for just how many people have played the game (rather than copies sold). Well from what I've seen and read, from some of the supposed leaked images... Should be interesting to see how it pans out!

I've tried to hunt a thread down for this game but haven't been able to find one, so guess this will have to do. The game was officially announced at E3 2018 during Bethesda's conference, but all we got was this short teaser: This game was initially rumoured to be in development since far before even E3 2017, so has clearly been in the works for a long time, and I think this E3 is the time that Bethesda will choose to have a bit of a blowout for the game. Personally, I'm fully expecting a trailer and some gameplay footage, maybe even something similar to (but probably shorter than) what they did at E3 2015 for Fallout 4. If Halo opens the show, I could see this closing it. I don't think this because of any leaks - though there have been a few images of the game floating around - but because the planet which was shown in the teaser is pretty plainly visible in the bottom sector of the Xbox & Bethesda conference promotional image circle: This is probably one of the few games on the announced upcoming lineup from Bethesda and Xbox which really excites me, and this is as someone who has little interest in or history with their big RPG IP's, Elder Scrolls and Fallout. If there's a focus on space exploration which they can effectively tie to RPG systems, then this might convince me to buy an Xbox sooner rather than later. I'm also interested to see what direction they go in with the soundtrack too. Really hoping for something special with this, but last time I started a thread on an already announced RPG we ended up with the whole Cyberpunk situation...so I guess we'll see

Watched this earlier when eating my dinner and the chaos that ensued during the announcement of each Auction Bet had me in stitches So hyped for this E3 as it is, and we get the Allies back in the studio too. Going to be a great next 6 days or so, cannot wait!

Ahem.

Reviews going up: A lot of high scores going around. Digital Foundry's tech breakdown:

Capcom Showcase at 22:30 BST on Monday 14th: Filling up nicely. Still no word on Bandai Namco's presence though...

Thanks! I've covered the major ones in the first post just for reference (well, and LRG, just because I know some here will probably be interested in checking that out), but there are a whole lot of smaller events going on too. Still can't believe the time that the PC Gaming Show and Future Games Show are being held at compared to all of the others but at least it's not at the time some of the PlayStation conferences were held in the past!

Ahead of E3 kicking off this Saturday, I've found myself getting very excited. Perhaps, naively, this is the most excited I've been for E3, even with big publishers like EA and PlayStation not being present, simply because the last year or so has at times felt never-ending and gaming - and N-Europe - have been great escapes for me, and I'm sure many others here, from what's been going on around us. Now, I'm not by any stretch of the imagination an E3-watching veteran. As I've made clear many times over the last 5 years, I still consider gaming to be a relatively new interest for me, as I'm still constantly learning new things, and this is despite growing up around certain games and having great memories of gaming from growing up. 2015's E3 of Dreams was in the summer I left high school, when by far my biggest interest had recently become films, and while gaming news would occasionally filter through from console-warring friends growing up (who didn't see the face-off between Xbox's and PlayStation's E3 2013 booths?), it wasn't until I bought myself a PS4 for Star Wars Battlefront in November 2015 that I truly started to get into games. Fast forward a few rough months in my personal life and I landed here, and fast forward a few more months and I found myself watching my first E3 live. Now, E3 had crossed my path certain times growing up, such as when learning about Pokémon news in Pokémon World or on serebii.net, or seeing the 3DS on BBC News after it debuted at E3 2010, and I've since gone back to watch older conferences, but I didn't really get what E3 was until I had spent some time here and watched my first E3 live. And E3 2016 was quite simply magical as my first E3 experience. PlayStation's E3 2016, 5 years on, remains by far and away my personal favourite E3 conference - and one of my favourite gaming conferences in general - simply because it was electric. I was learning new names and faces while Shawn Layden absolutely killed it on that stage, backed by the biggest trump card of them all in my opinion - a live orchestra conducted by Bear McCrearey, who live-scored many of the conference's trailers and demos, including the opening demo for God of War. It was a series I'd heard of, a character I'd seen many times before, but it blew me away. This was followed by the reveal of Days Gone (which looking back really could have quite easily been a Last of Us spin-off if Sony were going to place a massive emphasis on review scores and sales, but that's besides the point), then a release date trailer for The Last Guardian, a new trailer for Horizon Zero Dawn, the reveal of Detroit, that insane reveal trailer for Resident Evil 7, some great VR stuff (X-Wing VR Mission, Arkham, that hilarious XV VR trailer), the announcement of the Crash remasters, Kojima revealing himself and Death Stranding's reveal trailer, the Spider-Man reveal trailer, and then finally looping back around to a live demo of Days Gone. Insanely stacked, mostly killer and very, very little filler, and I remember smiling through most of it not having a point of reference for so much. I even remember reading up on some of the names on the stage after the conference, I really enjoyed learning more about the industry, and this show in particular is a standout to me not just in terms of content, but in that it kind of hooked me. This was followed a few days later by what is my favourite E3 trailer, hands down: I genuinely think I've watched that trailer hundreds of times, and every single time I get chills. It's the trailer that got me willing to buy a Switch without even really having the financial capacity to at the time (if anyone remembers, I actually did pre-order the Switch, Breath of the Wild, and a whole bunch of those amiibo before talking myself down a few weeks ahead of the Switch's launch; I went on to pick it up with my first salary after getting my first full-time job a few years later). What's fascinating about the trailer to me is that it starts out very quiet, but immediately captures your attention, showing you the different landscapes of Hyrule with the ambient sounds of the world accompanying some soft piano strokes, all before Link jumps off that ledge. The freedom of the game is instantly on show, so many of its different mechanics and systems are highlighted relatively quickly one after another, and then the music - that erhu! - just kicks in after that split second of silence and darkness, and immediately sends your hairs standing on end. It's mesmerising. I think a massive part of it for me is that it captures a vibe that I've only otherwise experienced in Princess Mononoke, one of my favourite films; there's some weird blend of melancholy, hope, and natural wonder that only these two pieces of media have ever managed to capture for me. Crazy part is that despite being my favourite E3 trailer, it's not even my favourite trailer for this particular game! That honour belongs to the game's Switch Presentation trailer (which might be my favourite game trailer). What really put the bow on that E3 for me though was Nintendo Treehouse, just watching them explore Hyrule in Breath of the Wild filled me with a sense of awe I think is rare to come by - that and the little bits of Pokémon Sun and Moon footage we were treated to. But I don't even think that Nintendo Treehouse was the best demo I've seen at E3, either, because I think Square Enix absolutely knocked their demo for Final Fantasy VII Remake out of the park at E3 2019. JRPG's are long, so from what I've watched at E3 are something of a nightmare to demo, and there was probably more pressure on this demo than any other I've watched at E3. And they killed it. Excellently paced and coordinated, it answered a lot of questions about what the game was going to be in comparison to the first game, what would be carrying over in terms of general gameplay, what wouldn't, and a whole lot more. I really hope we see something similar for XVI at some point! So, yeah, E3. It means a lot of different things to a lot of people, and for me is one of the most exciting times of the year, even if the number of attendees and overall quality of the show has been on the decline as of late. Not to be hyperbolic, but I genuinely look forward to it more than I do my birthday. I've questioned myself before on this - isn't it a bit sad to be excited for a bunch of adverts? - but I think it's okay, because it's something I genuinely care about. Over the last 5 years, gaming has become something I'm incredibly passionate about, whether that be learning more about how they're made, writing about them and sharing my thoughts on here, and above all else, playing them. I've even booked next week off - a combination of E3, the Euro's, new game releases, and just being a bit burned out at work - and have started up my typical E3 tradition of going back and watching conferences to perpetuate my excitement (which, as you can see, seems to be working). This all brings me to the actual reason I wanted to start this thread ahead of this weekend: I wanted to hear about everyone else's experiences with E3. When did you first hear or read about E3? When was the first time you watched an E3 live? What are some of your favourite E3 moments or trailers? Is there a standout E3 for you? A standout conference in particular? Which E3 were you most excited going into? On the other hand, are there any moments, E3's, or conferences which stand out to you as being particularly dreadful? Which game do you think demoed best at E3? Have there been any moments where E3 has unexpectedly crossed over into your day-to-day in one way or another, such as through a colleague or seeing it covered on the news? Have any of you attended E3? For those who haven't - would you want to attend E3? Is there a game that was revealed at E3 which has since been cancelled that you'd most want to see be realised? Do/did you have any E3 traditions? Is there a particular outlet or personality you would seek out during E3, either for coverage or their own impressions/reactions? Is there still a game you wish to see announced at E3? And what do you think the future of E3 holds?

13 minutes of gameplay from IGN's Summer of Play:

Confirmed times for both the PC Gaming Show and Future Games Show ahead of Sunday 13th, which are forming a double-hitter. The bad news is that despite Monday being WIDE OPEN, the PC Gaming Show starts at 22:30 BST, and the Future Games Show at 00:00 BST (yeah, midnight, for some reason). Gearbox are having their showcase at 22:00 BST on Saturday 12th, which follows Devolver Digital's event at 21:30 BST (which I somehow missed them announcing before?), which in turn seems to be directly following Ubisoft Forward, which we already knew started at 20:00 BST - so a solid two and a half hours there. If I'm remembering right Randy Pitchford has something big to announce, but nice to see Gearbox bring his magic back up Does anyone else hear Geoff Keighley's boss music?

Is this because of what I thought of Ratchet & Clank? Because I stand by it! While the timing of this might suggest E3, I've been keeping my hopes related to this quiet for the last few months simply because of the 35th anniversary being next year, so even if it is coming, I expect this to be announced towards the end of the year or next year rather than this weekend (depending on where XVI, Forspoken - not FF but still AAA and by a related team - and that other rumoured FF title end up landing). Honestly, Square Enix's wording for this weekend's E3 event has me a little nervous that we might not see that much from Final Fantasy as it is. Rumoured title aside, we already know about XVI, so if it was going to be shown here, why wouldn't they tell us it was going to be here like they did with VII Remake? And then there's the whole thing about it being PlayStation exclusive, so it could be saved for their potential event this summer...someone make this madness end

So I had to get my head straight and do some digging, because I was thinking the same thing, but they also seem to have their fingers in a lot of pies over at Square Enix. After looking into it more, the impression that I'm getting is that Team Asano work in the capacity of producers rather than key developers on projects, because since Octopath Traveler, in terms of major releases (speaking to their console work rather than anything they've touched on mobile) they've worked on Bravely Default II, and I assume, are currently working on Project Triangle Strategy, however it's worth noting that Octopath Traveler was developed by both S-E and Acquire, and for Bravely Default II the main developer cited is Claytechworks, with Team Asano being cited as producers in the announcement trailer (link to timestamp in trailer). Similarly, Team Asano's logo was featured prominently at the end of the Octopath Traveler reveal (link to timestamp in trailer) back at the Switch Presentation in January 2017. What I find interesting is that the Project Triangle Strategy reveal trailer made no mention of Team Asano at all, nor did it feature their logo, instead opting to go with the HD-2D branding (link to timestamp in trailer), which is peculiar to me because their other works have gone out of their way in their reveals to state that they were being made by Team Asano, their logo remains what it was before on their Facebook page - so we know they haven't rebranded to be 'Team HD-2D' - and we know that Team Asano is involved based on this post on their Facebook page and this interview which cites Toyoma Asano as the game's producer. This brings us onto the Dragon Quest III Remake, which also had no mention of Team Asano, but did carry the HD-2D branding (link to timestamp in trailer). Unlike Project Triangle Strategy, there is nothing to directly confirm Asano is actually working on this project, however given the HD-2D branding, I think it's a fair bet to say that they'll involved in some capacity - and I think that capacity is that they will be producers on the project, with the key developers either being the Dragon Quest team (who are also in Square Enix's Creative Business Unit II with Team Asano) or some third party studio (as was the case on Asano's earlier projects). I'd lean towards it being the Dragon Quest team, considering just how much say that team has on their key projects (and also considering how haphazardly Horii shared that they were looking at remaking I and II also, which I don't think he'd say if it was being worked on by someone else), but that's just my own guess. In fact, all of Team Asano's major releases have been developed by external teams up to this point (the original Bravely Default and Bravely Second: End Layer were both developed by Silicon Studio), which leads me to believe very strongly that they are also producers on Project Triangle Strategy and that development will be helmed by a third party. I don't want to sound like I'm undermining how much work Team Asano does as producers, but with Bravely Default II releasing and announcing both Project Triangle Strategy and the Dragon Quest III Remake this year, my best guess would be that while they might support in development in some way - likely the implementation of their engine and realising games in their particular style - their main purpose may currently be to oversee upcoming HD-2D projects, which could be why we haven't seen their name on these two new projects, but have seen the HD-2D branding. And I would like to believe that this is the case, because it would be a very smart move by Square Enix. And just to throw some fuel on the fire, while I don't think this strengthens the arguments for Final Fantasy HD-2D remakes, the first two games Toyoma Asano served as the main producer on were the Final Fantasy III and Final Fantasy IV DS remakes, the two games renamed weirdly in the app stores. I really don't think it means anything, but found it quite funny! Also on the topic of funny and totally unrelated to this topic, adding those links to the trailers has taught me one thing: Team Asano absolutely uses the same person to direct their trailers. Other than the Octopath Traveler reveal, where it happens at the end of the trailer, the reveals of Bravely Default II, Project Triangle Strategy, and the Dragon Quest III Remake trailer all have a transition at the 0:27/0:28 mark to show a logo (either Team Asano's or HD-2D's) Honestly, I'll take this or HD-2D remakes, I don't mind which - so long as one is on the way, S-E, or I swear! There's a charm to their sprites in I - VI which is absolutely destroyed by the most widely available versions currently, based on the mobile ports, and it's why I bought the games on the app store and then added them to my NES and SNES Classics. Heck, I even think there's a bit of charm lost to the sprites in the Dragon Quest III Remake with it being HD-2D too - though it's still undeniably easy on the eye and battles look particularly gorgeous - and looking at images of the different versions, I think the SFC sprites are probably the strongest, followed by the GBC ones. I really think it's all in the eyes; the simpler they are when they come to sprites (generally), the more likely I am to enjoy them.