We are finally in the midst of E3 and the majority of the press conferences have taken place. There has already been a fairly mixed bag and I would like to take some time here to gather my thoughts (a mix of positive and negative) and dive into what I thought about each of these conferences.
EA
Honestly, I will not have very much to say about EA. Their conference sucked. It is usually the low point (besides Nintendo for me, personally, cause I mostly ignore their games), but this year it could have been better with them having their own event and all. I feel like EA has backed themselves into a corner, and that was too evident this year. They held their own show this year, only to reiterate what we already know and they shared nothing of value. After a 10 minute delay, they opened with a bunch of talking. They confirmed the Titanfall 2 leaks, which they were good sports about, but other than that, there wasn’t anything new. Then came the sports, which I will not talk about because I do not care. The audience didn’t seem to care either. The type of people who watch these conferences do not typically care for sports games, that’s just the way it is.
The lowpoint for me was (unexpectedly) when Bioware took the stage. They announced that news was coming in the Fall and showed another dev diary for Mass Effect: Andromeda with a bit of gameplay interspersed throughout. I could not contain my disappointment and almost tuned out entirely from then on. The only notable thing afterwards was Battlefield 1, but I don’t care much for that game. I’m sure it will be great, but it’s not for me. EA has such a wide catalog of games and they have yet to figure out a way to deliver an excellent conference and they seemed this year at E3, like they had nothing to offer. It was a cringe-worthy disaster of a conference.
Bethesda
Bethesda’s conference was very refreshing after EA and served as a reminder of why you can get excited for E3. Their pacing was great and it never really felt like any one game overstayed its welcome (besides Dishonored 2 a bit at the end, but how can you complain about that?). The new Fallout 4 DLC was interesting, especially that you get to make our own vault. I likely won’t ever play it, but it still struck me nonetheless. Even more exciting was the announcement of a Skyrim Remaster coming later this year on October 28th, satisfying one of my E3 wishes! I was also blown away by the Prey trailer. I do not know much about the Prey series other than Prey 2 being notorious for its stay in development hell. Well, it looks like it perished there, but the game is being rebooted in the form of a sci-fi horror thriller. The trailer was creepy, atmospheric, and left me wanting more in the best way possible. There is not much else I can say that will do it justice in my mind so I will link it below. I encourage you to watch it if you didn’t already.
Finally, Dishonored 2 delivered some cool gameplay and story details. I am unable to go too much into this because I still need to get into Dishonored, but I have never felt more encouraged to do so. Dishonored 2 looks so good (already preordered that insane collector’s edition) and I will surely play through the first Dishonored this summer. Bethesda had an incredibly well-paced and exciting conference that, while not living up to last year’s conference (but with Fallout 4 last year, this year couldn’t possibly compare, which is completely okay), delivered more than enough to continue to convince me Bethesda truly deserves its own show.
Microsoft
Microsoft had a pretty good conference this year, but honestly, I wasn’t really feeling it. Their conference blew me away last year and I thought they clearly outdid Sony. I always root for Sony because they have a special place in my heart and, at the time, I didn’t have an Xbox One, but I had to admit Microsoft killed it. This year was good, but nothing “wowed” me the way announcements like backwards compatibility and (what I believe is still the best on-stage demonstration to date of VR) Minecraft VR demo did.
Ironically, Minecraft was the point this year where the conference fell apart for me. As I alluded to earlier, I now own an Xbox One but I still did not feel invested or excited or anything. Perhaps I am still too new to the consoles and the exclusives it offers, but nothing left me excited or wanting more, besides the unveiling and confirmation of Project Scorpio. They hyped up their next console so much and I cannot wait to see what they deliver for Holiday 2017. Also notable was the Xbox One S, which boasts a great low price of $300 with notable upgrades and a console that doesn’t look like a VCR from over a decade ago. Unfortunately, I do not have much more to say regarding Microsoft. They had a good conference for sure, but they really just didn’t do it for me.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft got off to a really weird start, and then a really good start, and then it just caved in and fell apart on itself. I have no words for the weird dance at the start so I will just call it that and move on. I am still not sold on the new Ghost Recon, but it looked cool. I’m not a fan of the ultra-scripted co-op demos where the people are roleplaying like they’re actually there. In a perfect word, all co-op experiences would be like that, but that is not reality and as such, I don’t buy into those types of demos. The new Ghost Recon seems like a combination of other games like any Tom Clancy game mixed with a bit of MGSV and any other open-world shooter. To me, the game does not seem to have an identity of its own, so I am not interested.
The clear standout for me was the lengthy amount of time dedicated to South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Besides continuing to laugh at the name every time I hear it, I will be waiting eagerly until December 6th when this notable upgrade to The Stick of Truth arrives. They were able to perfectly tie the two games together, set up the story, and showcase new gameplay and I was amazed. I was also laughing the whole time which of course is an effect South Park should have. From the intro that looked like Splinter Cell (they totally got me..), to the hilarious nature of Cartman’s origin story for our character, to the incredible shots fired at both Marvel and DC for their handling of their cinematic universes, this was my favorite part of E3 so far.
Afterwards, the conference fell apart. They had less things to talk about then Microsoft (who ran for 90 minutes as a point of comparison) and still clocked in at two hours. The gameplay of For Honor was very interesting and it is nice to see Watch_Dogs 2 becoming what the first game should have been. I will probably write separately about Watch_Dogs 2 because I have too much to say for right here. Unlike Ubisoft, I am trying to keep this short (though ironically, I talked about this conference the most…), so I will wrap up the last two thirds of their conference by saying it was bloated and at some points completely unnecessary.
E3 has been pretty great so far and we certainly have a lot to look forward too. If I had to rank the conferences so far, I would say Bethesda was the best, followed by Microsoft, Ubisoft, and EA forever in dead last. I’m still recovering from the cringe conference. I am very excited for Sony’s conference and I will be dedicating the entire next part of my E3 Impressions to them. I hope you all are enjoying E3 and getting hyped for the great games to come! Stay tuned here for more E3 impressions and to hear more of our thoughts as this exciting week continues to unfold. Thanks for reading!
~ExpvReal27
EVR 