E3 2018

[Happenstance]

Did someone say “friendly neighbourhood”? 

 

Looks like a massive pigeon took a shit on his knee

Edited May 17, 2018 by Happenstance

[Ganepark32]

The press conference we were all waiting for has officially been announced. Devolver are doing their conference on Sunday 10th at 8pm PT, so that should be 4am BST and 5am CEST on Monday morning if I'm correct.

Last year's one was brilliant for just how ridiculous it was. Sounds like they're also promising more of the same bonkers showing this time around so I know I'll be tuning in. Hopefully see some interesting indie gems shown.

[Hero-of-Time]

23 hours ago, Ganepark32 said:

The press conference we were all waiting for has officially been announced. Devolver are doing their conference on Sunday 10th at 8pm PT, so that should be 4am BST and 5am CEST on Monday morning if I'm correct.

Last year's one was brilliant for just how ridiculous it was. Sounds like they're also promising more of the same bonkers showing this time around so I know I'll be tuning in. Hopefully see some interesting indie gems shown.

I wasn't a fan of their show at all. I appreciated the message they were making but I hated the forced comedy and found the whole thing pretty cringe worthy to watch. I find E3 conferences to be more humorous when things go wrong.  

I sat and watched the Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft 2015 E3 press conferences yesterday evening. I thought it would be interesting to see how they hold up now, which is something that was mentioned on EZA recently.

Sony

I started with the famous Sony 2015 conference. It started strong with The Last Guardian, had the reveal of Horizon: Zero Dawn, teased Shenmue 3 and of course showed the trailer for the Final Fantasy VII Remake. Outside of those big hitters You also had Uncharted 4 gameplay, which featured the hilarious hiccup where the character wouldn't move ( kudos to ND for putting that as a trophy in the main game ) and Sony announcing that they would be partnering with Activision to market the Call of Duty franchise. You can see why many think this was one of the strongest E3 showings for any company. However, there were pacing issues and boring segments.

There was a section where Andrew House arrived on stage and talked about Vue and VR which was snooze worthy. Also, I do question where the FFVII trailer was placed. It was shown just before a bunch of indie games and it completely overshadowed them. I think it would have been far better to have had the FFVII trailer as the "Just one more thing" moment right at the end. I also found that a lot of their gameplay sections went on for far too long. This is a personal gripe of mine as I much prefer to have a trailer and then leave the long gameplay showings for the show floor or something like the Nintendo Treehouse. It's why I appreciated both Sony and Nintendo's fast firing presentations in recent years. 

There were also some dud sections in the conference. The Hitman trailer fell pretty flat and Dreams, while looking cool, wasn't really explained well, a problem which still remains to this day. You also had a trailer for Destiny: The Taken King which was probably a big deal for a lot of people 3 years ago. Batman Arkham Knight and Assassins Creed were also shown off but, again, nothing really special. Same goes for the Disney Infinity announcement.

Oh, there was also the section in the show that had Shawn Murray come on stage a talk about No Man's Sky. Man, looking back he really talked a load of rubbish and made promises that he couldn't keep. 

Looking back I don't think this was a fantastic conference. I still think it was better than what the others done that year but outside of the 2 hype trailers it seemed pretty run of the mill and quite ordinary.

Nintendo

Next up was Nintendo. This was a conference that didn't hit the right notes with me when I originally watched it back in the day but I seemed to enjoy it more this time around. Their event started very strong, what with Iwata, Miyamoto and Reggie all made up as puppets/muppets. This section was a joy to watch and I found my self smiling all the way through it. They showed off Star Fox and the game looked pretty good...until the second screen stuff started appearing. You also had the issue of Miyamoto sitting talking about the ideas behind Star Fox and this really took the wind out of the sails of the event. This was a common theme during the 2015 event, gameplay of something then a bunch of padding. 

You then had a segment about how Nintendo had teamed up with Activision to bring 2 new amiibo ( DK and Bowser ) to Skylanders. This was a rough thing to watch. Again, this section seemed to drag on longer than it needed to be. By the end of this the event had been on for 16 minuets but it felt like a lot longer.

Next, the 3DS getting it's time to shine. Zelda: Triforce Heroes was shown for the first time and it was a great trailer....but once again it cutaway to a developer diary where you had to sit and listen to how the game was created and the ideas that it brought to the table. The 3DS train kept on chugging away as Hyrule Warriors Legends, Metroid Prime Federation Force and Fire Emblem Fates, Mario and Luigi Paper Jam and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer were shown. The Wii U also got a few games shown off, such as Xenoblade Chronicles X, Yoshi's Woolly World,Tokyo Mirage Sessions and the infamous Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival and Mario Tennis.

What was pretty evident about this E3 show was just how few big hitters Nintendo had in the pipeline. A lot of their games felt like filler titles that could be used to plug gaps in the release schedules. Stuff like Happy Home Designer, Mario Tennis, Amiibo Festival and Hyrule Warriors Legends kinda show this. You then had Federation Force, a game nobody wanted or asked for, and Xenoblade, Yoshi and TMS, games which were announced back in 2013, trying to fell fresh and new. 

It's interesting watching this back because at the start of it all Reggie said that 2015's event was about transformation and it kinda of shows. Both 2015 and 2016 were kinda stop gaps for the company. They were just trying to hang on until their next bit of hardware was ready and it really shows with this event. If you were to cut all of the filler out of this Digital Event then it would have been very short. 

Microsoft

While Nintendo started with a puppet show that made me smile, Microsoft started with a fantastic trailer that showcased their biggest games of the year, with some epic music playing in the background to hype you up. It worked well.  Tomb Raider, Halo, Gears of War, Fable and Forza were the ones leading the charge. 

Bonnie Ross turned up on the stage to show off Halo 5. This should have been a great segment but, like some of Sony's and Nintendo's offerings, the thing just dragged on for too long. Luckily the 4 people playing the game didn't try to be funny and have the banter while on stage. Straight after Halo was Recore. This was the first time the game was shown and I remember feeling really excited for it back in 2015. 

Phil Spencer was on stage next and was really trying to sell how that Xbox was all about games now and that first party exclusives are the anchor for the platform....good to see that is working out well for you, Phil.  Jokes aside, he did drop the bomb of Xbox backwards compatibility becoming available. The crowd went completely nuts and rightfully so. It's funny, out of all of the conferences I have watched from 2015, I think this was the biggest announcement that has actually done some good for the platform holder.

Peter Moore showed up soon after this and announced the EA Access would be coming to Xbox One. I think this was another big announcement for the platform and one that is still very much appreciated by Xbox gamers today. You could kinda say that this was the first step of Microsoft coming up with Game Pass for their system. I imagine they kept a close eye on the numbers EA were doing with this service and then decided to have a crack of it on their own. A nice gesture on EA's part was allowing gamers to trying the service out for free during E3 week. Peter then ended his time on stage by showing of Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 2.

Forza 6 then ruined the flow of things by having to wait for a car to be lowered down from the ceiling. The conference really dragged on during this section as you had guys talking about cars and how Forza 6 was changing the game. Luckily a quick Dark Souls 3 trailer popped up straight after this and the crowd seemed to wake up.

Next, Ubisoft had a big presence on the stage as they showed off both The Division and Rainbow Six: Siege. I can't remember if this was the first time that they had been shown. Did Ubisoft have a conference that year? I know Microsoft would have been first anyway but I can't remember if Ubisoft showed these games both here and at their own event. Either way, both games had a pretty decent showing.

The next section was dedicated to indie games. This was where Cuphead was shown for the first time and the crowd seem to enjoy it. I still need to play this game. maybe when I buy my next Xbox One I will finally pick it up. They also showed off Beyond Eyes. I played this on the PS4 a year or two back and, while a little rough, I really enjoyed the game. I honestly forgot that this was shown at Microsoft's event. 

Both Rise of the Tomb Raider and Rare Replay was shown next. Like a bunch of other stuff, these two big games were leaked before E3, which is a shame because Rare Reply would have been a fantastic surprise for a lot of fans. What's crazy is just how many games are on there and the price of the whole package. This was around £20-£30 at launch yet here you have Nintendo porting Tropical Freeze and Hyrule Warriors on the Switch and charging an absolute premium.   Rare also showed off Sea of Thieves for the first time.

HoloLens was shown off next and most people didn't seem that bothered with it until the Minecraft stuff started to be played around with. The cringe was strong with this section of the conference but it was still pretty cool seeing the HoloLens in action. Is this still a thing?

The conference ended with the announcement of Gears of War Ultimate Edition and then a trailer/gameplay of Gears of War 4.

There were plenty of game announcements during this conference and I think this was the last year Microsoft had a good lineup up of exclusive games. Sadly, if you look at what they were pushing we know now that it was a bit of a disaster. Fable Legends ( forgot to mention they showed that ) was cancelled, Gears of War 4 and Halo 5 weren't received well by fans and under performed and Tomb Raider bombed in sales when compared to the original, no doubt due to launching the same day as Fallout 4 and people knowing it would be on another platform in a years time.  Sea of Thieves is another game that has failed to live up to the hype. It's funny that both that and No Man's Sky during Son'y show both had the same ideas of having this huge world to explore but both fell flat and failed to live up to their promises.

So, that was 2015. I did enjoy watching them all again. I'm not sure if i'll watch anymore before the 2018 shows begin, though.

[Hero-of-Time]

 

[Ganepark32]

Really looking forward to Ubisoft's conference. Last year they did a fantastic job and really highlighted how passionate they are about creating these experiences. The moment where Michel Ancel brings Yves up on stage was a brilliant way to cap off that show with Beyond Good and Evil 2.

Can't wait to see more of Skull & Bones and see what Transference actually is as the teaser gave a slight Dirk Gently feel to it. I'd have preferred to have BG&E2 go dark till it was nearer release but they're saying they have something to show beyond there dev streams so it'll interesting to see what they've got. Splinter Cell is likely their big game but I'd love a new Rayman game (tho Ancel needs to give an update on Wild as it's been ages).

As E3 approaches, I must admit I'm only really looking forward to what Ubisoft and Bethesda have to show as I have a feeling it's going to be a bit of a flat event all round with no real big announcements (besides Nintendo's almost blank slate on the Switch beside the ones we know of).

Sony are highlighting games I'm interested in but I don't expect there'll be anything major announced outside of third party or indie titles.

With Microsoft, it's pretty evident what we'll get: Forza, a teaser for Halo 6 with it coming next year, Crackdown 3 and Gears of War 5, again teased for next year with a redo of Gears of War 2 for September probably. They're probably playing the long game and getting things in place for the next gen, which they've started the ground work on with the Xbox One X as that'll probably carry similar hardware to what comes next.

With Nintendo, I'm just looking for a reason to hold on to the Switch as there's little coming that has me chomping at the bit. Yes, there's Smash and Metroid Prime 4 but I need more than 2 games compared to the long list of everything I'm waiting for on other consoles.

Not bothered for EA or Square Enix (it's unlikely we'll see a new Deus Ex any time soon and Tomb Raider will be at Microsoft's conference for sure).

But Ubisoft have a good slate of games to show from what they've announced and if they conference runs like last year, it'll be a winner. Bethesda is the unknown at the moment beyond Rage 2 but the way they're talking things up, it should be a good conference. In just trying to keep the missus' hopes for Elder Scrolls 6 in check as I don't think that's this year, tho if anyone is going to put out a game in the wake of Red Dead Redemption 2, that would be a good bet for them as it'll fly off the shelves.

I'll probably start feeling the hype the closer it gets but it's not quite there beyond a few things.

[Ronnie]

Really looking forward to E3, but mostly because I'm hyped to see more Ubisoft stuff, Anthem and whatever Nintendo's got in store for us. Not really interested in any of Sony's big four at this stage, then again we haven't seen anything but CG trailers of three of them, so who knows.

On 5/22/2018 at 9:51 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

I wasn't a fan of their show at all. I appreciated the message they were making but I hated the forced comedy and found the whole thing pretty cringe worthy to watch. I find E3 conferences to be more humorous when things go wrong.

Couldn't agree more. Everyone was raving about how amazing the Devolver "presentation" was, I found it cringe-worthy after about two minutes, and barely funny at that.

Edited May 25, 2018 by Ronnie

[killthenet]

Devolver had a good idea but they didn't have the right people to execute it so it ended up just being a tedious rip off of The Eric Andre Show. If someone ever gets Nathan Fielder to present their E3 presentation then they'll be on the right track as far as satire goes. 

@Ronnie Death Stranding may have only been shown off in cutscenes but they're at least all in-engine and so are pretty representative of how the final game will look and with Kojima's recent track record for great gameplay I'm expecting Death Stranding to be really interesting.

I'm really looking forward to E3 this year, already started stocking up on junk food to binge on while watching EZA's streams. 

[Hero-of-Time]

[Nolan]

Bethesda/Fallout instagram stories are both the TV broadcast signal saying please stand by. With #pleasestandby. 

So I guess that’s minor confirmation of Fallout news incoming. Now the question is, Fallout 5 or Fallout 4 Switch. Personally I’m thinking switch seems more likely, but it has been a handful of years since Fallout 4....you’d think they’d leapfrog with ElderScrolls though. 

[Julius]

26 minutes ago, Nolan said:

So I guess that’s minor confirmation of Fallout news incoming. Now the question is, Fallout 5 or Fallout 4 Switch. Personally I’m thinking switch seems more likely, but it has been a handful of years since Fallout 4....you’d think they’d leapfrog with ElderScrolls though. 

Wouldn’t be too surprised if it was a Fallout 3 or New Vegas remaster (releasing on Switch too) either. 

I think we’re still a while off from the next Elder Scrolls, to be honest  I’d actually be [pleasantly] surprised if we saw VI on the current generation of systems, at this rate 

[Fierce_LiNk]

Although I didn't get tremendously far in Fallout 4, I really didn't enjoy my time with it at all. I hope that if there is a 5, that it is much improved. 4 is this generation's "game I wanted to love but couldn't". 

[Ganepark32]

28 minutes ago, Julius Caesar said:

Wouldn’t be too surprised if it was a Fallout 3 or New Vegas remaster (releasing on Switch too) either. 

I think we’re still a while off from the next Elder Scrolls, to be honest  I’d actually be [pleasantly] surprised if we saw VI on the current generation of systems, at this rate 

There's been a rumour of the 3rd Fallout getting a remaster (with Switch release) so I suspect it'll either be that or New Vegas getting a remaster. It's far too early for a new Fallout game, unless it's another spin off from Obsidian which I could see happening as a stop gap till the next one.

Skyrim originally released in 2011 so that's more than enough time for the 6th Elder Scrolls to be developed. Tim Hines as stated that they're working on it and has done for the last couple of years so 6 and a bit years is more than enough for pre-production and development to happen. If it's not this year, it's most likely happening next but I could see that as Bethesda's big announcement of the show. It's either that or the rumoured Starfield but there's plenty of scope for both.

They've got at least one big reveal up their sleeves and I don't think a remaster is it. I'd be cagey about betting on Elder Scrolls but it's got as good a chance of a reveal as Starfield at this moment in time. The unknown is why I can't wait for their conference as it's always a good showing.

[Nolan]

Oblivion was 06, Skyrim 11. It’s been quite some time really which why I could Elder Scrolls coming. Though they have still been working on Elder Scrolls Online, Morrowind was released just last year after all.

I’d be okay with a New Vegas release on Switch. I didn’t get far into it unfortunately. Fallout 3 was enjoyable but ultimately I don’t care to go back to it. I’d be surprised if it was FO3 multiplatform though unless they really put a lot of work into it. Xbox One X and PCs can already play an enhanced version. 

 

Hell maybe it’ll be remakes of the originals. That could be interesting.

[Sheikah]

I think it would be strange for them to remaster Fallout 3, that game has not aged well at all.

[Fierce_LiNk]

1 minute ago, Sheikah said:

I think it would be strange for them to remaster Fallout 3, that game has not aged well at all.

If a game hasn't aged well, wouldn't that mean that it makes more sense to remaster/remake it? Rather than just allowing the current game to stay as it is? I guess it depends on the amount of effort and work that they're willing to put into it. 

[Sheikah]

If a game hasn't aged well, wouldn't that mean that it makes more sense to remaster/remake it? Rather than just allowing the current game to stay as it is? I guess it depends on the amount of effort and work that they're willing to put into it. 

No because by remaster (as opposed to remake), I assume they are bringing the graphics forward with minor modifications to systems.

The main problem I see is the environments and the copy and pasting of metro stations across the map. That's the kind of thing a remaster can't really solve.

Great game in its day though, it was groundbreaking. Vegas is the better game though.

[Fierce_LiNk]

1 minute ago, Sheikah said:

No because by remaster (as opposed to remake), I assume they are bringing the graphics forward with minor modifications to systems.

The main problem I see is the environments and the copy and pasting of metro stations across the map. That's the kind of thing a remaster can't really solve.

Great game in its day though, it was groundbreaking. Vegas is the better game though.

I guess the game isn't really "old enough" either to justify a full on remake. 

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Ganepark32 said:

Skyrim originally released in 2011 so that's more than enough time for the 6th Elder Scrolls to be developed. Tim Hines as stated that they're working on it and has done for the last couple of years so 6 and a bit years is more than enough for pre-production and development to happen. If it's not this year, it's most likely happening next but I could see that as Bethesda's big announcement of the show. It's either that or the rumoured Starfield but there's plenty of scope for both.

They've got at least one big reveal up their sleeves and I don't think a remaster is it. I'd be cagey about betting on Elder Scrolls but it's got as good a chance of a reveal as Starfield at this moment in time. The unknown is why I can't wait for their conference as it's always a good showing.

 

1 hour ago, Nolan said:

Oblivion was 06, Skyrim 11. It’s been quite some time really which why I could Elder Scrolls coming. Though they have still been working on Elder Scrolls Online, Morrowind was released just last year after all.

Todd Howard’s interview with Geoff Keighley during YouTube Live at E3 2016 is the main reason for my stance that it’s still a while away. 

Quote

Geoff Keighley: Are you guys going to do an Elder Scrolls VI?

Todd Howard: That’s kind of like the elephant in the room always when we talk about anything. And I think it’s good in these moments to tell our fans, ‘Yes, of course we are. It’s something we love.’ But it is–you know, I have to be careful what I say–it’s a very long way off. 

I could sit here and explain the game to you, and you would say, ‘That sounds like you don’t even have the technology–how long is that going to take?’ And so is is something that is going to take a lot of time what we have in mind for that game. 

And we actually have two other large projects we’re also doing that are bigger than anything we’ve done. People will probably hear about those probably even before Elder Scrolls VI. And that’ll make sense many years from now.

Keighley: So that’s amazing. You have a vision in your mind of what you want Elder Scrolls VI to be.

Howard: We think very long term. We’re not a developer that’s going to, like, rush something like this out [or do that] with any of our games. When you think of the future of that kind of game, we have a pretty good idea of what it’s going to be and it’s just going to take technology and time that really we don’t have necessarily right now.

One of those two other major projects seems likely to be Starfield, and if we’re only just going to find out about that game at this show, then I think there’s a good reason to believe that it might still be quite a ways off. From the sounds of it, they might want to build a new engine for VI (if I recall correctly, they were looking for people to work on an engine as recently as 2016) and I feel like - with how Bethesda games seem to continuously leak, and have for a while now - we would have heard the tiniest whisper that VI was in development prior to it being shown off as a tentpole game at E3. 

Also, @Ganepark32, did you mean Pete Hines? Because he clarified some of what Todd said shortly after that E3 interview with Keighley, stating that the game was not yet in development (as of August 2016); links aren’t working for me right now, so: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/elder-scrolls-6-not-in-development-right-now/1100-6441274/. And then, in an interview with Gamespot (https://www.gamespot.com/articles/bethesda-e3-2017-exec-explains-why-elder-scrolls-6/1100-6450988/) last year:

Quote

“Quite honestly, they didn't want to be the developer that was just Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Fallout for the rest of their development careers," Hines said. "And you've got a lot of people in that studio who have been there for a really long time. They wanted to be able to self-determine things they worked on next, whether it was existing stuff whether it was new IP.

"And I think Todd and his team have earned the right, given the quality of this stuff, to be able to say, 'We know everybody really wants Elder Scrolls VI, but we as creative people want to be able to do stuff that we're really passionate about.' And I think once you see how the next two titles come out and then how Elder Scrolls 6 ties into what those games are doing and about, I think it'll all make sense. But I think it's going to be a while before all those things happen."

 

[Julius]

8 hours ago, Nolan said:

Bethesda/Fallout instagram stories are both the TV broadcast signal saying please stand by. With #pleasestandby. 

So I guess that’s minor confirmation of Fallout news incoming. Now the question is, Fallout 5 or Fallout 4 Switch. Personally I’m thinking switch seems more likely, but it has been a handful of years since Fallout 4....you’d think they’d leapfrog with ElderScrolls though. 

Over 100,000 people currently watching a Twitch livestream of a Fallout bobblehead.  A lot of talk seems to be about it being a huge deviation for the franchise.

Could be a smart move for Bethesda to get this out of the way before E3 too, if that is the case. Looking at people’s reactions to what this might be (that is to say, supposedly, a hero shooter?) makes it seem potentially divisive, and I don’t think that they want much, if anything, to get in the way of their focuses at this year’s E3. Which, let’s be honest, is probably whatever BGS have been cooking up as of late (and a consequent deep dive), Doom 2, and some Prey DLC. 

[Nolan]

I’m just guessing at what hero shooter refers to but if it’s what I’m thinking....Well, Team Fortress 2 is still a high bar to top. 

Basically no buy from me. It takes a lot of talent and balance for me to enjoy that type of game. Most devs do not have that talent, nor the inclination to make classes and weapons balanced.

fascinating that they have 100,000 watching a damn bobble head though. Good on them. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Looks like Walmart has leaked one of Microsoft's E3 announcements.

 

[Happenstance]

Lol, everytime I see these now it takes a while to figure out if its actually Walmart Canada or the twitter account that Dan Rykert from Giant Bomb set up as a joke.

 

 

[Julius]

2 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Looks like Walmart has leaked one of Microsoft's E3 announcements.

They’re on an absolute roll this year.

Did Emily Rogers or someone upset a Walmart employee or something?

Edited May 30, 2018 by Julius Caesar

[Julius]

 

[killthenet]

Can we keep leaks in spoilers tags please guys? I block access to gaming news sites in the run up to E3 so I don't see stuff like this but then people end up just reposting it here and making new threads about it. Let some of us stay in the dark about all these surprises.