Nicktendo Posted June 16, 2021 Posted June 16, 2021 6 hours ago, Ronnie said: So what's everyone's five favourite games from this year's E3? For me I'll go with: - Starfield - very intriguing, love the look and tone - Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - looks hugely expanded from an already amazing first entry - Metroid Dread - never been a massive Metroid fan but this looks loads of fun - Death's Door - hadn't spotted this game before, looks like the next big indie gem - Breath of the Wild 2 - obv Honourable mentions to Somerville and Replaced, definitely picking those up. - Super Monkey Ball - Super Monkey Ball - Super Monkey Ball - Super Monkey Ball - Super Monkey Ball Spoiler Halo Infinite Metroid Dread Mario Golf Forza Horizon 5 2
Hero-of-Time Posted June 16, 2021 Posted June 16, 2021 Push-Square wrote a piece about the irrelevancy of E3. https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/06/reaction_e3_is_a_relic_desperately_clinging_to_relevancy Shawn Layden approves. I think most of us of here would agree this is the case. Publishers can now pick and choose when to drop their info and no longer need to fight for headlines in the same week. This years show was one of the worst I’ve seen and I think a lot of companies should be thinking long and hard if they should have a presence during next years show. Rockstar abandoned it years ago and they do fine, Sony seen the writing on the wall and got out of there last year and both EA and Activision don’t seem interested in joining the party anymore. If more publishers start pulling away then E3 may as well call it a day. Personally, this year proved that E3 means pretty much nothing to me anymore. It’s not the same and I doubt it ever will be. 2 3
Jonnas Posted June 16, 2021 Posted June 16, 2021 Five Favourite Games shown (I'll be excluding already-released games, so no DLC): Metroid Dread - It's beautiful. I want it. I'll have it. I must. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp - It's been 24+ hours and I still can't process that this exists! Metal Slug Tactics - Advance Wars still doesn't invalidate this. I do hope it comes to Switch sooner rather than later Despelote - Something about this game made me feel fuzzier than the entirety of the Wholesome Direct. I'll be keeping an eye. 12 Minutes - To be perfectly honest, I wasn't paying attention to this game's development until I realised the developer spoke with a Portuguese accent. Now I feel like it's my responsibility to check it out. Favourite Trailer - Kazuya's reveal. Smash Bros. trailers never disappoint, they're the whole package in conveying information and then entertaining with a mix of cool stuff an comedy. Plus, I got to see Tekken being replicated in Smash.[Honourable Mention: Kojima's Death Stranding trailer] Worst Trailer - Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters. The sheer failure of the concept kinda distracted from this, but that was a shitty, shitty trailer. No footage whatsoever of the new versions, no comparison, no way to see what the remastered versions look like, and what little we do get is hodge-podged together all at the same time into a collage that looks like it was made by a person who literally can't tell the games apart. Worst trailer for a compilation I've ever seen. Best Presentation - Nintendo. I mean, no duh. It wasn't just the content, the presentation was snappy, wasted very little time with games we already knew existed, actually did a better job at selling me Mario&Rabbids 2 than Ubisoft did, and it looks like it was competently paced and thrown together. Even Devolver had some disjointed pacing. Most Disappointing Presentation - Capcom. Yeah, didn't pick Square-Enix, since I already expect them to fuck up occasionally, and their E3 presentations have a tendency for disaster anyway, so you could say I had more laughs out of them, rather than disappointments. Meanwhile, I expected Capcom to announce something, anything new, even if it was something that had been leaked beforehand... but no, not even that. Greatest Presentation Moment - Metroid Dread's slow reveal was masterful. It wasn't best trailer, but the hint before the reveal, the slow drip of info, starting with Samus' new suit, the "5", the freaky robotic enemy, proper gameplay, and finally: DREAD. It's weird to say, but the reveal itself was superior to the trailer it was in. Most Awkward Presentation Moment - "These guys just started a new company. Anything you can tell us about your games?" "No, but we'll talk about our name". Most Disappointing Moment - Not Lloyd Irving Biggest No-shows - Fire Emblem. FE fans took Marth falling off the cliff personally. 5 hours ago, Glen-i said: First time I'm looking at this comparison. Jesus, this is embarrassing. People mentioned how bad it looks compared to GBA or PS1, but FFV manages to look worse than the SNES original! Square either puts this project back in the oven with people who know what they're doing, or face the real risk of damaging their flagship series irreparably. 1 1
Glen-i Posted June 16, 2021 Posted June 16, 2021 1 hour ago, Jonnas said: First time I'm looking at this comparison. Jesus, this is embarrassing. People mentioned how bad it looks compared to GBA or PS1, but FFV manages to look worse than the SNES original! Square either puts this project back in the oven with people who know what they're doing, or face the real risk of damaging their flagship series irreparably. It gets worse. Square have already done some FF6 style unification with that mobile game, Record Keeper! Like, if Pixel Remaster looked like that. I'd be fine with it. It's a good look. It's baffling! 1 1
Ashley Posted June 17, 2021 Posted June 17, 2021 20 hours ago, Glen-i said: WarioWare Gold is up there in the "Ninty's best voice work" category with Kid Icarus: Uprising, so I'm looking forward to hearing more full sentences from Wario! I actually missed the vast majority of E3 as I've been busy with other things. Nintendo's conference is the only one I watched all in all and I was pleasantly surprised that they actually did some unexpected things. Even though there's little in there I personally want, I'm glad to see them reviving some old franchises. Mario + Rabbids was a highlight because I really liked the first, although I don't know how I feel about the new free movement thing. I did like the grid-based movements of the first one as it added strategy. Super Monkey Ball is pure nostalgia but whatever, give it me Watched the trailer for We Are OFK this morning as I find Teddy Dief to be an interesting voice in the industry so I'm curious where that goes. Other than that I need to catch up on some of the indie titles to see what's out there. If anyone knows of a good indie roundup of E3 I'd be much obliged, but if not I'll seek it out myself soon. 1 1
Hero-of-Time Posted June 17, 2021 Posted June 17, 2021 The show is now live. It’s giving a closer look at the games they showed during their E3 show, as well as showing a few new things. For example, Hellblade II got a bit of a tease and they also announced the return of Design Lab. 1 1
Kav Posted June 18, 2021 Posted June 18, 2021 As much as I got swept up in the hype and loved certain announcements & trailers, thinking about it, Kyle is probably right. 2
darksnowman Posted June 19, 2021 Posted June 19, 2021 Haven't watched the above videos as I don't really know what happened at E3 on the whole, so I don't have much context for reviews of the expo. Nintendo Direct aside, I skimmed through the Ubisoft and the VR videos, watched the Wholesome Direct in full and got out of the Capcom video toot-sweet. It's cool to see a Sam & Max VR game (seemed like an escape room rather than a point and click adventure), and pretty much all the games shown in the Wholesome Direct looked worth sticking on my Switch wishlist if/when they come to eShop provided I remember about them. But as tired and cliche as it may be, games are by and large just the same year in and year out so it's really hard to be wowed by the next big Far Cry or whatever when it's just a glorified iteration on what's been seen before. Woo. I'd have to look into it to understand why E3 has gone sour, but I think it'll hang around in some form--if it has to reinvent itself that's fine, it's 2021 after all. E3's the focal point of the gaming year and that Summer Games Fest by your man from the Bonus Round wouldn't be using it as a springboard for his latest little business venture otherwise. Also, it's not E3s fault if these companies have nothing to show. They shouldn't have booked their slots or cut their videos down in size. 1
Ike Posted June 20, 2021 Posted June 20, 2021 The Game Collection are doing 5% off £50 and 10% off £100 including preorders. Good chance to save on games announced during E3. 1
Julius Posted June 23, 2021 Author Posted June 23, 2021 30th Anniversary livestream coming for the Mana series at 10:00 BST on Sunday 27th June. Courtesy of Siliconera: Quote Square Enix will hold a live stream to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Mana series on Sunday, June 27, 2021. The stream is scheduled to run for three hours from 18:00 to 21:00 JST (5 AM to 8 AM ET). Masaru Oyamada, the current producer of the Mana series, will appear on the stream. Japanese comedian Susumu Imadachi from the Electric Comic duo will host the event. In addition, the original creator of the series, Koichi Ishii, will make a voice-only appearance. This stream will cover both the past and future of the Mana series. It will start by going through the series history, from Final Fantasy Adventure to the latest remaster of Legend of Mana — which would have been already released by the stream. The participants will then deliver new information related to the future of the Mana series after its 30th anniversary. Koichi Ishii originally created Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden — localized in North America as Final Fantasy Adventure — for Game Boy in 1991 as a precursor to the Mana series. Square Enix continued working on the series even after Ishii left the company in 2007. It released a 3D remake of Trials of Mana in 2020, based on the third series title previously exclusive to Japan. The latest title in the series to date is a 2D remaster of the PlayStation title Legend of Mana that will come to the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC worldwide on June 24, 2021.
Sheikah Posted June 23, 2021 Posted June 23, 2021 Five favourite games of this E3 (yes I'm counting Summer Game Fest in this, don't @ me!) for me would have to be, in no particular order: • Elden Ring - fantastic trailer and the thing I'm most hyped for from this E3, looks incredible and it comes out in January! • Starfield - thought what was shown of it in the Xbox & Bethesda Showcase was pretty underwhelming, but the behind-the-scenes video with the concept art and Inon Zur's music more pronounced than in that trailer, as well as Todd Howard's interview with The Telegraph, got me really excited. Will wait until next E3/summer, when I assume we will get a deeper dive, but assuming no delays, I think I'll be picking up a Series X a few weeks ahead of this next year. • The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - sucks that it's probably coming the second half of next year rather than the first, but I thought the trailer was fantastic for getting your mind racing, the new mechanics and items they showed off were super cool, and I really enjoyed the music. Still one of my most anticipated! • Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising - I backed Eiyuden Chronicle on Kickstarter last year, ahead of playing the first two Suikoden games this year, just because I had a hunch I would get on well with those games and because it felt like it was worth supporting something like this. Having now played the first two Suikoden games, both of which I loved dearly, I cannot wait to see what Murayama and Rabbit & Bear have in store for us with the game! And it still looks fantastic. So, why the hype for Rising? Because it's the first we've seen of it, and I can't wait to hopefully get a bit of a peek behind the curtain into this world next year! • Replaced - love pixel art, love the backgrounds, it was a pretty high octane trailer and I can't wait to see more. Somerville looks great too, I personally don't have any real investment in Metroid Dread but was hyped just because I know so many here were hoping for it and will absolutely be picking it up, and Advance Wars 1+2 is something I'm definitely interested in. A bunch of indies I like the look of, perhaps too many to mention! Oh, other than Trip to Yomi, that's probably level with Replaced for me! Some other topics for discussion I'd like to throw in the mix: • Favourite Trailer - Elden Ring. Release date earlier than I think anyone was really expecting, yes it used the same music as before but I don't care, the crescendo of the choir at the end as The Tarnished leaps towards 16-armed dude gives me goosebumps every single time. It also really gets the mind racing with possibilities, actively is pushing me towards playing my next From Software game, and I'm very excited for it, or course! I've watched this trailer back a lot, as you might be able to tell! • Worst Trailer - Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Absolutely horrendous trailer which did absolutely nothing to inform you of what the game itself will be like, instead focusing on being edgy to the point of cringe. CHAOS. Urgh. And it sucks even more because the shadow dropped demo was corrupted and the update didn't take place until a day later, but when it did, the gameplay was actually good! • Best Presentation - Nintendo. It's unfunny just how easily they walked away with E3 off the back of three of their relatively smaller IP (Metroid, Advance Wars and Warioware) and a trailer for the Breath of the Wild sequel. There were a couple of things I took issue with from a presentation perspective, but overall it was incredibly well paced for its length and there were some really smartly curated moments too, but I'll get to that in the Direct thread as I'm still catching up on some of Treehouse! • Most Disappointing Presentation - Square Enix. Look, Gearbox was objectively the worst E3 conference I've ever seen, but I had no expectations going into that, and nothing riding on it. Capcom was underwhelming, sure, but it was pretty inoffensive. Square Enix crushed dreams during their presentation. Final Fantasy I - VI Collection I've been begging for for years? Steam and Mobile only. Final Fantasy Soulslike rumour? A trailer that does nothing at all to interest you in the game, promotes everything Final Fantasy has done wrong after doing so much right the last few years, it's rough. Babylon's Fall? Looked rough. Final Fantasy XVI? Complete no-show, guess we're waiting for a State of Play for that. • Greatest Presentation Moment - Geoff Keighley's over-the-top introduction for the Elden Ring trailer and then declaring he was free afterwards. Did so incredibly well to keep it under wraps, and though Summer Game Fest was far from being the best show this last week, I'm grateful that he holds it. • Most Awkward Presentation Moment - Randy Pitchford interviewing the cast of the Borderlands film, it's been a while since I've felt this awkward watching something on a stream. Runner-up would be Deviation Studios being announced at the tail end of Summer Game Fest -- not because of the guys themselves, thought they were a little nervous, but because it just felt so out of keeping with having a somewhat neutral space and didn't need to be there. • A Presentation Moment That Hit a Pet Peeve - "We have an amazing show: 30 titles, 27 on Game Pass" - Sarah Bond during Xbox & Bethesda Showcase. They need to stop doing this, shut up and let your games sell themselves, damn it! Runner-up would be every "Exclusive" mentioned, legitimately think they added a good 10 - 15 minutes to their show with that and "Day 1 on Game Pass". Urgh! • Most Disappointing Moment - Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters. I refuse to talk about this further. • Biggest No-shows - Final Fantasy XVI not being at Square Enix hurt. Was really hoping for something on Playdead's or Fumito Ueda-helmed genDESIGN's next games too. • Overall E3 score - 5.5/10. As has already been said before, most of these publishers and studios didn't need their own events based on what they brought with them, and I think the lack of things to fill in the gaps (impressions from the show floor, interviews, demos) just made it a thing I tuned in for when it came to particular presentations, rather than normally having something on in the background, as was the case during previous E3's. Nintendo boosted it by an entire point for me, this wasn't a good E3 on the whole, but they at least managed to drag it out of the grave. I don't know about you but the Final Fantasy Origin trainer was funny. To the point of it being my favourite trailer that I rewatched several times. For me E3 is at its best when it's awkward cringe. Had that trailer been middle of the road I doubt anyone would have remembered it! 1
Julius Posted June 27, 2021 Author Posted June 27, 2021 Quick roundup of the Mana anniversary stream: • Legend of Mana anime is on the way, subtitled The Teardrop Crystal. It is being adapted by Warner Bros. Japan. • a free-to-play mobile game called Record of Mana is on the way, launching worldwide in 2022. • there is a new Mana / Seiken Densetsu game on the way...but it's too early in development for them to show anything. No screens, no title, no systems announced, not even an edgy title on fire, or any talk about it being darker and for adults. Are we sure this is still a Square Enix property? 1
Julius Posted July 22, 2021 Author Posted July 22, 2021 EA Play Live started 5 minutes ago: Shows how low my hype is that I completely forgot. Knowing there won't be any Star Wars there probably doesn't help!
Happenstance Posted July 22, 2021 Posted July 22, 2021 Really liking the look of Battlefield Portal. Looks like it should be fun.
Happenstance Posted July 22, 2021 Posted July 22, 2021 The Dead Space remake should be a good way fod me to finally try that series properly as well.
Ganepark32 Posted July 27, 2021 Posted July 27, 2021 So Annapurna Interactive have their Showcase this Thursday and I've been looking at their release slate for the rest of the year/what games they've got coming from the studios they're working with and its a hell of a list of titles: 12 Minutes (August 19th, Steam and Xbox) Neon White (2021, Steam and Switch) The Artful Escape (2021, Steam and Xbox) Hindsight (2021, Steam, Apple Arcade and Switch) Solar Ash (PS4, PS5 and Epic Games Store) Stray (PS5 and Steam) Open Roads (Steam, PS5, Xbox) Thats a hell of a publishing slate if that all hits this year, though as much as I want Open Roads I suspect that'll become a 2022 title as we've only had a short teaser at last year's The Game Awards. Still, Fullbright's games have been fantastic so I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing more of it soon. I expect we'll get dates for pretty much everything else though and they've said they're be new game announcements and well as a few surprises, one of which is most certainly the heavily hinted at DLC/expansion for Outer Wilds (so excited for more of that game). Genuinely interested in pretty much all of their games that they're publishing though as they're one of my favourite publishers and have been very consistent at putting out solid titles from smaller indie teams (Wattam is probably the only dud recently). Curious is Giant Sparrow will be announcing a new title during the showcase as they worked with Annapurna to publish What Remains of Edith Finch so I could see them working together again as that partnership was a success. Anyway, looking forward to it.
Ganepark32 Posted July 29, 2021 Posted July 29, 2021 Annapurna Interactive Showcase was on earlier, stream is below and starts at 17:28: Really good showing, probably the best stream from any publisher this year. Plenty of games, dates and announcements of new partnerships with studios new and old and the presentation of everything was exactly as you'd want it to be. Let the games and the teams do their talking with no fluff. Well worth a watch. High points: The expansion for Outer Wilds, Echoes of the Eye, will release on September 28th on Xbox, PS4 and PC Solar Ash has a release date of October 26th. Stray gameplay shown and it look great. Sadly not coming until early 2022. Shame there was no Open Roads from Fullbright but when one of the announcements was a partnership with a new studio with one of the people who worked on The Stanley Parable and a former Fullbright dev I suppose that might have put Fullbright off. Sure we'll hear something soon but I do think it'll launch next year at this point. 1
Julius Posted September 28, 2021 Author Posted September 28, 2021 Tokyo Game Show is running from this Thursday (30th September) until Sunday (3rd October), and it seems like there might actually be a reason to be excited, rather than the usual stuff being regurgitated from other events about Japanese games and everyone praying for, but being disappointed by, Persona 6 not turning up. And that is Square Enix turning up. First up is their Square Enix Presents this Friday, starting at 19:00 JST (that's 11:00 BST for us Brits). They've also shared the lineup for the event: Quote SQUARE ENIX PRESENTS TGS2021 will give you the latest news about our upcoming titles, along with the pre-announced information. - Actraiser Renaissance - Chocobo GP - FINAL FANTASY VII THE FIRST SOLDIER - FORSPOKEN - Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - STRANGER OF PARADISE FINAL FANTASY ORIGIN - TRIANGLE STRATEGY - Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars Solid lineup, looking forward to seeing more on Forspoken, Stranger of Paradise, and Triangle Strategy. Speaking of Forspoken, it will get its own dedicated segment at 22:00 JST (14:00 BST) on the same day. And lastly, Stranger of Paradise will also get its own dedicated segment at TGS, on Saturday at 21:00 JST (13:00 BST). Hopefully we'll get to see some more of the game and maybe even hear how the demo feedback has been taken and will be implemented!
Julius Posted September 30, 2021 Author Posted September 30, 2021 First details on The Game Awards, which will take place 10 weeks from today on December 9th -- and returning with an in-person crowd. I can't believe they're going to save the next Elden Ring trailer for The Game Awards! Spoiler
Julius Posted October 5, 2021 Author Posted October 5, 2021 Well, there's a 20th anniversary event coming for Kingdom Hearts at some point in the future. Very bizarre to announce the event without a date, seems to hint that maybe they're busy at work on polishing something up just for the event...
Julius Posted November 10, 2021 Author Posted November 10, 2021 Another update on The Game Awards, courtesy of Geoff Keighley, courtesy of...Epic Games? Please, please, please let Ueda's next game be here
Ronnie Posted November 11, 2021 Posted November 11, 2021 Looking forward to it, usually a good time. BOTW2 tease??
Julius Posted November 11, 2021 Author Posted November 11, 2021 15 hours ago, Ronnie said: BOTW2 tease?? I don't expect it to be there, but it's one of those cases where I'll more than happily be wrong if it does turn up. I know Nintendo did things with TGA's in promoting BotW years before when we were getting early looks, BotW won GOTY from them, and they revealed and shadow dropped the Champion's Ballad DLC along with the show that year too, so it's not like Breath of the Wild isn't at home at The Game Awards. I think trying to apply to logic to Nintendo's ways is like trying to wash up with a bar of soap, but I think there are some fairly logical reasons for why it might not be there. For one: early 2022 is absolutely stacked with open world games which on paper could easily be GOTY contenders in Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West, both pencilled in for February releases. Admittedly we do know very little about the second half of next year at this stage, where if BotW2 makes 2022 it'll likely release, so maybe the second half of the year could be just as stacked. And then there's the fact that there's the first "true" open world Pokémon game in Legends: Arceus coming out at the end of January. Even though the more we learn about this game, the more limited it seems to be in structure and design (more comparable to Monster Hunter World), I think we've already seen and will continue to see the dreadful and kind of lazy "this is Pokémon's Breath of the Wild" headlines. I'm not sure Nintendo will want either game to eat into the other's time in the limelight, especially because Legends: Arceus is going to get a short continuous campaign as far as Pokémon games go, as the Diamond & Pearl remakes launch next week. And then there's the fact that other than showing new gameplay, I don't feel like they'd have an update on something like the date here, just given the prospective timeline for the game? So the idea of having an awesome trailer and then it still saying "2022" at the end as opposed to a particular month or quarter would just ring kind of flat, like Little Devil Inside not having a release date update in the most recent State of Play. I think the wiser thing for them to do would be to wait until E3 2022 and then crush everything around it with an update on the release date (which could easily be "Sorry, we meant 2023!"), a great meaty trailer to sink your teeth into, and plenty of Treehouse footage. While it could go either way and I'd love to see it there, I feel like something totally unexpected could be just as fitting here, like a Mario Odyssey sequel or that heavily rumoured DK game. Personally, I just want an update on two games and will be happy with either of them. Firstly, Final Fantasy XVI, seeing as we've got naught all year and were told last year to expect some kind of update in 2021. We'll be a few weeks removed from Endwalker at that point too, so fingers crossed! And of course, for the other one like I mentioned before, I just really want that update on Fumito Ueda's next game. It's been radio silent other than an image or two of concept art on their website ever since Epic Games got involved to publish, and I feel Epic would want to throw it in here to showboat a bit to other publishers.
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