E3 2017

[drahkon]

Okay...I seriously need to give Jamiroquai's music a listen.

[Glen-i]

Ah, it wouldn't be a Ubisoft conference without a sudden dance sequence!

[liger05]

That girl couldn't sing but man those hips and that Azz. Best thing about E3!!!

 

Far cry 5 looks dope.

Edited June 12, 2017 by liger05

[Dcubed]

Well I'll be damned! They actually bloody announced it!!!

 

Talk about total mood whiplash from the original game though!

[Fierce_LiNk]

That trailer for Beyond Good and Evil 2 was really cringe worthy. After all that build up and mysticism and hype, I thought that was a poor trailer.

[drahkon]

Bring on the tears.

 

Not a bad conference.

Edited June 12, 2017 by drahkon

[liger05]

No way beyond good and evil 2 is a switch timed exclusive as was rumoured.

 

Very good conference from Ubisoft.

Edited June 12, 2017 by liger05

[Julius]

Holy smokes.

 

Ubisoft brought an emotion and passion with them to their briefing this year, with a host of great games - releasing within the next 18 months and beyond - promising us a great time. The Rabbids game looks like tremendous fun, and just, wow, the pacing was perfect for me: never too long or too little spent on any of the games, and a great balance of gameplay and stage presentation.

 

Weirdly, my favourite briefing so far this year, and by far my favourite from Ubisoft in a long time, perhaps ever, at E3.

 

If PlayStation can top that I will be crying.

 

Also, they were quick to put up this BG&E2 trailer breakdown. Kudos, Ubi!

 

[Ganepark32]

When I saw that pig in the trailer I thought "Surely not" and as it went on it looked less and less likely that it would be it but seeing that title screen come up put the biggest smile on my face, so happy that it's finally happy. Don't really care what else is announced at E3, that's my game of the show.

 

Glad they're taking a different angle with the game, over 10 years since the original means that they might as well start again. I think it looks great and can't wait to see what they do with it and just see the scope of the game they're making what with spending the last 3 years on the tech side of things. Those saying it would be a Switch exclusive, I can't see that happening now. That's gonna be PS4, PC and Xbone.

 

Wondering now if we will see Wild at the Sony conference then with Ancel out in LA, we'll see soon.

[Glen-i]

Far Cry 5 made me leave to get a burger. And then I miss a bloody Beyond Good and Evil 2 announcement! Damn it Ubisoft!

 

Anyway, 2/10. Not funny at all.

 

OK, I'll be serious.

 

BG&E 2 elevates it to a 7/10 for me. Surprisingly competent, which is all sorts of weird. Mario/Rabbids/XCom is intriguing and South Park is looking solid. Well done.

[Julius]

Right then, ahead of my two most anticipated shows this year (being PlayStation and Nintendo) - which I'm sure I share with many of you - I want to share my thoughts on the four major briefings that have already zoomed by so far this year. I will also list my most anticipated games shown for each conference, in descending order of anticipation, and end each summary of my thoughts with a score out of 10.

 

EA

Most anticipated games shown: Star Wars Battlefront II, A Way Out, Anthem

 

Electronic Arts, a publisher known the world over for their multiplayer endeavours and seemingly wanting to squeeze out as much cash from its consumer base as possible, kicked off E3 this year with a small bang.

 

Our first look at Battlefront II multiplayer was had with the Battle of Theed, exhibiting a battle between the CIS and Republic forces, including heroes and villains from across the Star Wars eras. The game looks great - I would argue that this is the best visual depiction of the Clone Wars we've received to date, in terms of fidelity and graphical resolution - and, as a HUGE Star Wars fan, I love how EA have reacted to remarks made about the first game (which it sunk some 130+ hours into). With the original Battlefront II being my personal favourite game of all time - I have literally sunk thousands of hours into that one - and my love of Star Wars, I think it goes without saying that I was extremely satisfied with what I was shown of the game. Also worth mentioning, I think, was the genius move to utilise the likeness of the game's campaign's protagonist, Iden Versio, as the presenter during this segment. Roll on November!

 

A Way Out, by Hazelight Studios, exhibited a great relationship between developer and publisher, and Josef Faras' charisma and charm helped really push this game. Not that it needed any further pushing, mind: a splitscreen, compulsory cooperative prison escape game was always going to be an interesting premise, but some ideas clearly of Faras' film industry experiences add a fresh ingenuity to a game that could have been easily buried in the mix this year.

 

Finally, Anthem, a Destiny-like game that takes place in a futuristic sci-fi setting with masses of creatures on show and a beautiful landscape - which can be explored fully with Iron Man-like exosuits, which allow superhuman abilities and flight - was teased towards the end of the briefing, to be expanded on the following day on show at the reveal of Project Scorpio at the Microsoft Xbox briefing the following day. Like all of the games on show at EA Play this year, this game was beautiful, and followed the unveiling of a new AI initiative by EA known as SEED. This is one I'm definitely interested in seeing more of, especially with one of the stronger BioWare teams having worked on it.

 

However, there were a few drawbacks to the show, in my mind, one such drawback being that the pacing was ABSOLUTELY WRONG. Demos were not expanded upon by presenters on the stage, for example, and felt like short snippets. The editing of the Battlefront II Battle of Theed was dreadful, with the camera often changing at the worst of times (for example, someone having been watched line up a kill for 10 seconds only to not see the pay off, or cutting away from someone who's changing to a hero character). For the games I listed above, perhaps ironically, pacing was fine in their own dedicated segments, but transitions from game to game felt clumsy, and often rushed, with a new Need for Speed demo being shown before jumping into a minute long demo rewind of some NBA Live 18 gameplay, and that really, really hurt what EA had to offer this year, I feel.

 

Score: 7.0/10

 

 

Microsoft Xbox

Most anticipated game: Sea Of Thieves, Anthem

 

So...I'm going to keep this one pretty short. Microsoft revealed the new Xbox One X in starting the show, and went on to detail a lot of technical terms, which is great for hardcore gamers, and especially those present at E3. I won't try to go too deep into this here, as I have elsewhere on these forums, but this feels a case of way too much, way too late for hardware, and could really hurt Xbox in the years to come, and especially if and when we move on to the next generation of home consoles. I am a PS4 player, sure, but I am by no means a fanboy: I want to see Microsoft push us to new boundaries in the gaming console space, but releasing a console capable of exhibiting 4K at 60fps at this stage into this generation of consoles, where developers have finally begun to show mastery over HD assets in their respective engines of choice, doesn't make much sense to me. No-one is building a unique, must-own, Xbox One X experience right now.

 

As many have agreed, myself included, what matters most at this stage of the console generation is software, even more so the exclusive kind, and once agin, I feel they fell short guys. Like, not-even-close short. Put into perspective: the only game that's really captured my interest from them this year is a game that wasn't even a new reveal, and that's Rare's Sea Of Thieves, which looks like a whole lot of fun (and looks perfect for the VR space that Microsoft failed to expand upon during their briefing, as they had mentioned it last year in teasing Project Scorpio. Anthem looks beautiful on the One X, but I have a feeling that game will look just as good on my HD TV in HD (yes, that was another dig at why the One X was so poorly timed).

 

Likewise, the same problem here as with EA when it comes to pacing. Jumping from demo to demo, with hardly any transition or expansion on stage, this might have well have been a Nintendo Direct. It certainly wouldn't have backfired the way I feel it did, that's for sure.

 

Score: 6.0/10

 

 

Bethesda Most anticipated game: Skyrim for Switch

Even shorter than the last one, I think.

 

Doom VFR? Cool. Fallout 4 VR? Nice. Skyrim for Switch? Looks like a good portable port! Quake Champions? Not really my thing. Dishonoured 2 DLC? The Evil Within 2? Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus? All neat, but not franchises I'm tripping over myself to see the next installment of.

 

The real kicker here was the constant tease of the rumoured new sci-fi RPG by Bethesda Softworks titled Starfield. The constant tease of their great RPGs, and the hint of another. The starry background prevalent throughout their whole show, and so on. I get why they didn't show it: they love to bring games out the same year as they are announced, and I believe they'll announce it at next E3 for release late next year.

 

The pacing was fine here, with a cartoonishly animated 'Bethesdaland' tour being the source of the flow in this briefing, which I was fine with. Apart from, of course, of course, the fact that it felt Direct-like and had the flow ruined on occasion by reverting back to the stage for a short talk about the games. It just wasn't needed, at all.

 

Score: 6.5/10

 

 

Ubisoft Most anticipated games: Beyond Good & Evil 2, Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle

This was by far my favourite show so far this E3, and perhaps my favourite of Ubisoft's ever at E3. You saw it come into a physical form towards the end with the developers of Beyond Good & Evil 2 coming out on stage: there was a real emotion and passion on show here that I don't think we'd seen until then at this year's E3, and perhaps that was brought out with the exchanging of company hands due to happen later this year.

 

Everything just seemed to resonate, and there wasn't a single game that was any less than interesting from my perspective. In fact, Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle looks like genuine fun, and has been added to my Switchlist, and it was a smart decision to bring out Miyamoto at the start, and an even smarter one to show off gameplay before the trailer in this instance. If the order had been reversed, the demo would have felt like your typical expansion of a trailer during these shows, but instead, the trailer built on the comedy and mechanics introduced to us in the demo.

 

The Crew 2 looks and sounds technically and visually impressive. Micro-America experienced in a myriad of speedy types of transport? Count me in. Assassin's Creed Origins? Looks visually stunning and mechanically impressive. Skull & Bones? Looks like Black Flag 2.0, but man, what a resurgence the pirate material is having! That Skylanders-like game also looked very impressive - like a more refined and focused No Man's Sky - as did the Winter Olympics DLC for Steep. Beyond Good & Evil 2 brought the house down at the end, and felt more like an encore to a great presentation rather than a "well, if we haven't hooked them yet, we have now" situation. Beautiful trailer, and whilst it may be a few years back, IT IS HAPPENING.

 

And the pacing was PERFECT. Like, seriously. No game took up too much time, or was overshadowed by another by taking up too little time. No transition felt rushed or unnecessary, and there was a flow to their briefing that, again, we hadn't seen this E3. The emotion was on show at Ubisoft, and it was a beautiful way for them to close this chapter and their history and begin the next. And I will gladly wait, albeit in eager anticipation of their next great showing.

 

Score: 9.0/10

 

Right then: over to you, PlayStation!

[WackerJr]

After Ancel declared that BG&E2 wouldn't be shown this was the 1st E3 in years where I genuinely didn't believe Ubisoft would show it. Then suddenly it's right there on the screen!

 

Ok, so I'm a little disappointed if it's true that it's a prequel, as I've been waiting so long now following 'that' ending! Still, I'm just so pleased it's finally coming. I love Ancel's show of emotion, and it really would be the icing on the cake if somehow this was on Switch and it was a timed exclusive.

[killthenet]

I accidentally saw the trademark thing earlier so the SOTC reveal was kind of ruined for me. At first glance I don't think it looked that good either and the lack of the score from the original game worries me a bit, you simply cannot make any changes to the soundtrack, it is absolute perfection. I trust Bluepoint though but a bit disappointed this means they won't be working on the Shenmue HD remasters.

[Julius]

Loved that, but still, nothing yet that's truly made me go WHAT THE----?! and go accordingly nuts. I don't think there's been that big surprise yet, and I had been expecting Sony to deliver (saying this, I loved their show and it's the best so far this conference).

 

You're up, Nintendo.

[killthenet]

Yeah, I think Ubisoft might have had the best conference so far. Sony's staging experiments fell flat, the Indian musicians to introduce Uncharted was really good but everything else was a bit poor. I think there were only 2 actual announcements in the whole conference, Shadow Of The Colossus and Monster Hunter World. God Of War, Uncharted and Spider-man looked good but as you say there were no surprises. I think SOTC would have been a surprise to me if I hadn't seen a flash of the leak earlier on.

 

I had a feeling that Sony might not be as good this year after they knocked it out of the park the last two and this definitely didn't feel as confident a showing as in previous years. Weird that unless Nintendo have a few surprises that Ubisoft will have had the best conference, never saw that coming.

[Ronnie]

Ubisoft conference was outstanding. So much variety on show, from Pirates to talking pigs, Mario and Rabbids to Elijah Wood x Lost, Far Cry to Creed, South Park to space shooting. The BG&E trailer was amazing and an incredible way to finish their show.

 

I thought the Playstation show was a disaster, easily the worst of E3 so far to me. Same show as last year just with 2018 release dates and all the games were so similar mechanically.

[Nolan]

I thought the Playstation show was a disaster, easily the worst of E3 so far to me. Same show as last year just with 2018 release dates and all the games were so similar mechanically.

 

I don't disagree with what you said in the other thread about the conference, but I do disagree to say the games are similar mechanically. 3rd Person action is a type of game, but mechanically most seem to me to have variety.

[Ronnie]

I don't disagree with what you said in the other thread about the conference, but I do disagree to say the games are similar mechanically. 3rd Person action is a type of game, but mechanically most seem to me to have variety.

 

I guess it depends how closely you want to look into them. Generally speaking I think the gameplay tropes are too similar to base an entire conference on them and not much else. I think there was a dissapointing lack of variety on show from Sony, especially when compared to Ubi and perhaps even Microsoft. EA's three non sports titles were a shooter, a co-op jail break adventure and a Fast and Furious style car game. That's variety to me.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Ronnie

[Kav]

Glad I didn't stay up for Sony's presser, it was good but nothing special.

[Hero-of-Time]

Glad I didn't stay up for Sony's presser, it was good but nothing special.

 

For the most part, that's how I seen it. It was decent but it was VERY safe.

 

I had a couple of issues with the conference. Firstly, the audio was completely botched in the opening segments on a few of the streams. I missed all the dialogue from the Uncharted demo, Horizon DLC and a bit of the Days Gone.

 

Secondly, they really need to sort their camera work out. They kept flipping between the screen and crowd for no reason. A lot of the time the camera was far too zoomed out and you missed the start of the trailer. Microsoft also kept doing this and it was infuriating.

 

The reason I wasn't that excited going into this conference was because I knew we would be seeing a lot of the same games that we had already seen and that's exactly what happened. While some of them do look amazing, a few of them dragged on far too long. I mentioned in the MS conference thread that I really dislike gameplay demos that over stay their welcome and that was a case for a couple of these games.

 

It's hard to get excited when we have seen the games before and most of them aren't going to hit until next year. This does play into Sony's strength as they have been doing the tactic of letting the 3rd parties sell the console during the Autumn/Winter period and then unleashing the exclusives during the Spring.

 

I was happy to see that VR is getting some solid support. The segment wasn't for me but it was good to see that the platform isn't being just left to die.

 

Speaking of VR, I wonder where the hell Dreams has gotten to? The game is long overdue at this point and one can't help but feel that Media Molecule will be in trouble once the game does finally ship.

 

The highlight for me was obviously Monster Hunter. No doubt the game will bomb ( fans of the traditional series will probably shun it and I doubt Capcom will be able to gather the audience it wants ) but i'm still intrigued and looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Hopefully it will give the A team a kick in the backside and they freshen up the main series.

 

Lets see if Nintendo can salvage what has been an overall average E3.

[Kav]

The Sony presser was very much how I expect the Nintendo one to be. Show lots of what we already know and not many new things.

They need to get the balance right.

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

I think Sony were in the unenviable position of having hit it out the park for at least the last three years that they were bound to have a show that was merely "good"!

 

I hope MH World does some business but I fear, like @Hero\-of\-Time, it might not, especially being multiplatform and without the focus of one company (like Nintendo with the numbered editions) to really help push it.

 

Ubisoft still had the best conference so far, can't believe I'm saying this but Mario and Rabbids might be my favourite game so far too...

[Hero-of-Time]

I think Sony were in the unenviable position of having hit it out the park for at least the last three years that they were bound to have a show that was merely "good"!

 

I hope MH World does some business but I fear, like @Hero\-of\-Time, it might not, especially being multiplatform and without the focus of one company (like Nintendo with the numbered editions) to really help push it.

 

Yeah, I think showing their games off early in previous years has finally caught up with them. Saying that, it's not as if they need to push things hard at the moment. They've been incredibly successful this generation and, given what MS showed off, I don't think they have anything to worry about.

 

I also think their conference could have been stronger of they had saved the pre-conference trailers and announcements for the main show. Just like in previous years I think Nintendo could have had better Digital Events if they had made their Treehouse announcements all in one place.

 

It's still early days for MHW but i'm honestly not hopeful that it will see success on the consoles. I guess it depends just how different it really is. I've watched the trailer a fair few times now and the MH DNA seems to be there. You are still hunting, gathering, mounting, large and small beasts but I think it will depend on how the combat is because that's where Monster Hunter really comes alive.

 

I'm just excited that it's finally on a console with a decent online setup and the graphics have finally been given an overhaul.

[Julius]

From the Coliseum schedule;

 

Tuesday

• 3:15 PM– 4:00 PM:

Square Enix

Don’t miss when Square Enix presents a live demonstration of a newly announced title being showcased at E3 2017.

Wednesday

• 5:30–6 PM:

Square Enix

Join the team at Square Enix for a developer showcase, revealing new details about a game that will be announced for the first time at E3 2017.

 

My biggest question at the moment is what on Earth are we getting from Square Enix? With all but Nintendo's show down, I suppose this pretty much chalks off games like Tomb Raider and Remake, unless they're just planning to randomly announce something? One of them has to be Project Octopath Traveller, I assume, so what on Earth is the other game? Especially if it is for the Switch, to be revealed during Nintendo Spotlight? Have I completely missed a SE game announcement?

 

Holding out hope for the FFVI Remake for Switch, @Hero\-of\-Time !

[Hero-of-Time]

Holding out hope for the FFVI Remake for Switch, @Hero\-of\-Time !

 

Haha. Believe!