Sony Wins E3, Microsoft Close, But Nintendo…
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is the best time of the year for gaming. It is a chance for game companies to show us what they have been working on. From big gaming companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, to Bethesda, Ubisoft and Square Enix, these press conferences showed off just what’s in store for us in the coming months and onward.
There were a lot of amazing games shown, huge announcements being dropped and surprises galore, with a very impressive showing from everyone — well, mostly everyone. And in all honesty I must say that this has to be one of the best E3s in a very long time.
Microsoft
Starting off with Microsoft who started their show with Halo 5: Guardians. Showing off the 4 player cooperative mode and ending with the new multiplayer game mode Warzone which looked amazing. They also showed new trailers for some highly anticipated games like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Dark Souls 3, Forza Motorsport 6, and a few others as well.
Along with with those few surprises they did announce backwards compatibility for the Xbox One. While it is only limited to certain games it does make a statement, as their competitor Sony’s PS4 can not do backwards compatibility. Either way hopefully it’s a start to having more backwards compatibility for older games which will hopefully convince gamers the console is worth it. What was nice to see was RARE games make an appearance, and announcing the Rare Replay which was all of their previous games bundled together, and a new Pirate game called Sea Of Thieves. I look forward to seeing a new game from them, and glad to see them making real games again.
They also showed off the very impressive Microsoft Hololens which showed off a full 3D model of Minecraft. While very impressive I want to see what else it can do for gaming. I can only imagine this to be a start in making a holograms for the YuGiOh card game.
What I loved most about the press conference was the showing of gameplay for Gears 4. It felt like a whole new atmosphere. While the Gears games always had a very war style setting this game felt more like a Resident Evil game, which has to make it my favorite pick of the Microsoft conference. While Microsoft had a great showing there were a few games I didn’t care for, and surprisingly they did not show any Call Of Duty. That franchise has been a headliner for their showcases many times before. While I was hoping to hear Killer Instinct Season 3 be announced, overall by showing gameplay of some highly anticipated games and dropping some great news on us, I give Microsoft a 7 out of 10 for their conference. You can kinda see most of their games coming before the show, but they do look very good as of now.
Sony
Next up is Sony, and I am not going to lie — Sony really surprised me. One thing I felt Sony needed was strong showing at E3 and they did that tenfold. Sony dropped a huge bomb on everyone by showing off the big one, The Last Guardian. This overly anticipated game was finally announced to be coming to the PS4. But that was not all — next up they showed a new game from Guerilla Studios, the team behind the Killzone franchise, Horizon Zero Dawn, which was by far one of the most impressive new titles to be shown at E3 this year in my opinion. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where machine-style animals and dinosaurs roam the open world, it was enough to get me excited. I really can’t wait to learn more about that game. Next off we saw the new Hitman game, a trailer for Street Fighter 5, and learned more information about No Man’s Sky, which is a game I am highly anticipating.
After that the games shown were not impressing me at all until they dropped the biggest bombshell of the show — the Final Fantasy VII HD remake. Social media blew up with that announcement, and my Facebook news feed was completely overwhelmed by the announcement. But to be clear this isn’t an exclusive but will be coming out first on PS4. Even so this was incredible to hear. The fact that it was actually happening is big news in the gaming industry.
However, right after we got another bombshell, with the showing of the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter page. Childhood nostalgia all around. And within nine hours the game shattered Kickstarter records, with more than $3 million already donated toward the project. It’s safe to say Shenmue 3 is going to happen.
Kind of hard to top those two bombs being dropped, but after a couple more game showings Sony did end the show by showing off gameplay of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
Impressive as I knew it was going to be already, it was safe to say Sony brought it this year. I was very impressed by some of their games, and of course FF7 HD remake and Shenmue 3 are easily game changers. Besides those games there were some I purposely didn’t care for like Dreams, Firewatch and some of the indie games. But I will give Sony a 9 out of 10 for their conference for having such major announcements and impressive games to show.
Nintendo
Last but not least Nintendo… my God, this was the worst showing of E3. Nintendo already stated that their new console, the NX will be talked about at another time, and that the new Legend of Zelda would not be at this year’s show. So they had very little to talk about. A lot of fans were saying the Wii U is dead, and to be honest I can see that.
With having a lot of amazing games come out last year with Super Smash Bros, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, and my choice of Game of the Year for 2014, Bayonetta 2, I was hopeful that the Wii U would at least have a proper send off, and I was very unimpressed with the showing.
I will say I found the puppet versions of Reggie, Iwata, and Miyamoto hilarious. That’s the Nintendo attitude when it comes to these types of press conferences. They jumped right in with the new Star Fox game titled, Starfox Zero. I was highly anticipating this game, and when I finally saw it… I was just moderately interested. It looks like a fun game, but the graphics just feel off to me. It doesn’t look very “next gen to me,” and I was honestly expecting more. While the transforming Arwings, and Landmaster Tank was cool, nothing really screamed “be impressed” to me.
Sadly it didn’t get much better after that. While Legend of Zelda Tri Force Heroes — a 3Ds title — looked impressive, I’m not really seeing anything enticing. Sadly the feeling got worse as it went along. Hyrule Warriors Legends was announced, which is just a 3Ds version of the before mentioned game, some new Animal Crossing games, and Yo Kai Watch… which all didn’t really impress me.
A new Fire Emblem title was announced, Fire Emblem Fates, as well as another crossover game with FE characters which looked more like a anime than a game to me.
However possibly the worst game of the show for me was the announcement of Metroid Prime: Federation Force — I can’t believe that was a real game. After the horrible game that was Other M the Metroid franchise deserved better, and what do we get? A very lame kid-friendly looking Metroid game — I have no words.
I was excited to see Xenoblade Chronicles X, a game I am highly anticipating get a December 4th release date, but that’s it. Nothing else was impressive to me. Super Mario Maker looks good but not something I honestly can care about. Yoshi’s Woolly World, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, and majority of the talked about games I don’t care for. Besides Xenoblade, and Star Fox nothing else was impressive to me. I was hoping to hear about a new Pokemon game, maybe some more DLC for Mario Kart 8, and Smash Bros (I know Ryu, Roy, Lucas just came out too, but still). Nintendo doesn’t look like they are going to waste anymore time on the Wii U — after their last games come out, that is it. I do believe the new Zelda game will be pushed back onto their NX console. I give Nintendo’s E3 press conference a 3 out of 10. It would have been a zero if Star Fox, and Xenoblade wasn’t shown
Overall E3 had something for everyone. There were a lot of games announced, big news dropped, and surprises made. Even companies like Bethesda doing their first ever press conference to show off what they have to offer with DOOM, Dishonored 2, and of course Fallout 4; Square Enix showing off Just Cause 3, announcing a new Nier game, Kingdom Hearts 3, a new Star Ocean game, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided; Ubisoft showing off more what they had to offer with The Division, Rainbow Six: Siege, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, For Honor, and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.
In the end, gamers won. There is going to be some incredible titles coming out in the future and I can’t wait to play them. Let’s see game companies try and top this years E3 with an even better showing next year.
