So, here we are again, more fun fun fun on the “have some hype for stuff you can’t have just yet” train in the “biggest gaming event of the year” which is accurate as long as I don’t beat any of those games that have thwarted me for all my life, then E3 won’t stand a chance. But before I get lost down that particular maze of self loathing and bitterness, here’s some thoughts on a few points about E3 so far
EA opened up proceedings by hosting their own presentation EA Play, and I’ll be honest, it was piss poor. I’ll admit that half the games displayed were not for me, as I’m not a football fan, and when it comes to first person shooters I’m not a Battlefield (or Call Of Duty) fellow really, but these were the only things that really got shown off, as well as a look at Titanfall 2 (now with single player!), and news such as charity donations via gamers playing, and EA Access being free for the next week allowing people the chance to play a selection of the EA Stable for free. Apart from that, two other big properties, Mass Effect and Star Wars were almost not worth mentioning at the event in my eyes…
Mass Effect – Andromeda started off with the typical “here’s what you an expect from the new chapter” spiel – new saga, seperate from the previous trilogy, new everything, the soundbite (You are the alien), and all powered using Frostbite just like nearly everything else in the presentation it seems. The trailer showed quick clips here and there, but very little that tells you anything more about the game other than some designs and perhaps the possibility of a female protagonist as standard. It wasn’t much, but it was actually a goldmine compared to EA’s Star Wars presentation. We get the usual introduction, pleased to tell you stuff that’s been floating round the internet for ages, super excited, may the Force be with you yadda yadda yadda…and then a “behind the scenes” video that echoed the first trailer for EA’s Battlefront. Just clips of people working on the games saying what Star Wars means to them and how excited they are and how we’re all going to love it, with barely anything actually shown…after the presentation ended, my knowledge of the forthcoming games had increased by 1%, with the most interesting thing being that Doug Chiang, who worked on Episodes I, II and VII (my least favourites to be honest) is working with the game developers producing designs. Enough to get me interested to see more of his art, not enough to get me excited on a Star Wars game.
To be honest, the thing that I found myself caring most about was Fe, the game being created by an Zoink, an independent studio in Sweden through the EA Originals program. Playing as a creature in a forest, with no memory of who or what you are, you communicate with other living animals and plants through the medium of music to discover the world around you, and who you are as well, all the while avoiding the march of The Silent Ones, mechanical looking creatures who will hunt you down. It may not sound like much, but in an industry where the same old same old comes out time and again, I always like seeing games like this being given a chance. Hopefully EA Originals will be successful enough to allow more.
So, onto Bethesda. As before, there is a lot of information on games already out, mostly about forthcoming DLC and updates. There’s more coming to Fallout 4, with more building add ons, and a new area to explore that was briefly shown off called Nuka World, which could possibly be Disneyland meets Coca-Cola filtered through Fallout’s Wasteland. If so, it could be quite the interesting piece of DLC. The long discussed Skyrim remaster finally gets announced, which adds both to the criticism of this gen’s abundance of remasters but also the argument that a lot of the are of games held in high regard. More Elder Scrolls Online updates, more DLC…more Doom updates, more DLC…speaking of Doom, EA isn’t the only one getting on the “try us free” promotion event. Bethesda are offering for this week only a chance to play through the first level of the new Doom free on all platforms for those who haven’t yet got around to playing it (like good old me). It’s nice to see more of this come back, given that demos and trials seem to have become extinct and we’re expected for the most part to part with our cash on a cold, hard and sometimes painful leap of faith. The other thing I’ll quickly touch upon is that both Doom and Fallout 4 are being made playable using VR, which could be interesting, but I doubt I’ll get the chance to even try VR for a few minutes for a very long time.
So onto the games yet to be released…Quake‘s making a return, this time as Quake Champions…which looks like Bethesda’s throwing its hat into the ring with games like Overwatch. Wasn’t a big fan of Quake myself, and this is even less tempting – pass. And then, look it’s Prey 2 Prey! This definitely looks different from the title that appeared early in the last gen’s life, and nothing at all like the cancelled Prey 2, the whole thing is a reboot. It looks nice, and it could be nice, but…do we really have to live in an age where you’ll seemingly have several releases that share the same title as their predecessors? It can get confusing…but I’m not going into the confusion of titles now. Then we have Dishonored 2, which gets a sizeable amount of show time, and arguably, rightfully so. Because there’s actually a lot to show off and discuss, given it’s fairly close to being released. We’re actually being shown stuff of the world, how it feels to go through it and actually do things in it, as opposed to “we aren’t showing you anything, but we think you’ll be excited about it”. Not only that, but from the presentation you can tell that a lot has been put into building the world of Dishonored 2, to give the whole game a sense of being a living, breathing world. Hopefully it pays off when it gets released on 11.11.16, and as a lovely bonus (which I’m glad to see more and more companies doing) every copy pre-ordered gets a digital copy of Dishonored – Definitive Edition along with it. Seriously, offering previous games with your new release is a far, far better incentive to get people to pre-order than “here’s a hat, a poncho and a gun that will be obsolete three hours in” DLC.
So overall, EA started poorly with the teaser for a teaser talk and showing off instalments in franchises you know will be there by now, but there’s some nice things to be got out of them for the next week. Bethesda picked it up with confirming and showing off titles fans have been talking about for a while now, and actually having a bit of depth and things to talk about in regards to their products, rather than hoping brand recognition will see them through. Let’s see what comes out next from the E3 Hype Train…
Veni Vidi Castratavi Illegitimos 