E3 2019: The Good, The Meh, The Ugly

Another year, another coming of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual marketing event that we enjoy experiencing anyway (until TGS where the gloves usually come off, but that's neither here nor there). I have a couple of thoughts on this year's event and I'd like to have general run through before focusing on what I actually enjoyed (ain't that what we should be focusing on at the end of the day? ^^)

The Good

This year sees a continuing trend in E3 becoming more focused on its core audience, gaming and everything that goes with it. Conferences are shorter, to the point, and put games front and center, and mercifully short on Truly cringeworthy moments (thanks Ubisoft). Perhaps a trend started by the now absent Sony, but not an unwelcome one.

For the presentations, this year Nintendo easily ran the tightest show, peppering one quality announcement after another with an efficient, slick flair that didn't really have any competition. Starting with the double whammy of the addition both the Dragon Quest protagonist(s) AND Banjo Kazooie to the Smash roster is no doubt going to make all sorts of players a little giddy. Plus the announcements of many anticipated and surprise titles like Witcher 3, Ni no Kuni, No More Heroes 3, Fire Emblem 3 Houses, the sequel to Zelda Breath of the Wild and more, Nintendo has quite the solid lineup for the coming year ahead.

As for the most delightfully surprising presentation, it's actually Square Enix this year, though it's almost entirely due to its centerpiece showing of Final Fantasy 7 Remake which they give a veeeery thorough yet slick actual gameplay presentation. I've been extremely skeptical of Square's ability to make it work since the rather disappointing Decade of Final Fantasy releases, and am still cautiously optimistic, but from what we can see here Square has made solid groundwork and clearly extra care was taken this time. It's their flagship title after all.

Another unexpected treat came from AMD of all people, with their announcement of their impressive new Ryzen and Radeon series. It's a nice leap forward in the especially in the processor arms race and it gives all gamers something to look forward soon. Given that AMD is to power both the next generation of Xbox and Playstation, a strong showing is a good sign for both consoles as well as the PC Master Race, as minimum benchmark available to developers will get that much higher.

The Meh

Okay, so I just mentioned that the heavy focus on Games is nice. And it is. But what what was off the mark even compared to previous years' was a heavy, heavy focus on hype cinematic trailers with little to no gameplay footage to go with it. This issue was particularly rife throughout the presentations of practically all the Western developers. Even CD Projekt took a bit of a step back from their absolutely strong gameplay showing last year to drop us a fully cinematic trailer to reveal... Keanu Reeves? I mean, I like the guy and all, but (a) the marketing arm's shenanigans was so heavy handed it literally slapped me out the moment, and (b) I’m not sure what to think of seeing John Wick in my roleplaying game  I'm hoping Keanu was added to the cast waay in advance seeing as he plays Johny Silverhand, who is for all intents and purposes is probably the most important NPC. Adding him in last minute to a game already with abit of a troubled development would be a little worrying. Further feedback indicates the gameplay is phenomenal, so its probably not a big deal, but showing us that would have been better.

Microsoft is a bit of a mixed bag, there was many a nice surprise and reveal to be had in the opening show of E3, trowing out fan favorites one after the other. And yet it still feels... stiff? hollow? For one, most of the show is about games they don't make and are on every platform imaginable. And as mentioned earlier almost all of what they showed had nary any gameplay show. Even the project Scarlett is just an announcement of an announcement (minus the self awareness to be tongue-in-cheek). Not a bad showing mind, just... kinda pointless?

EA's conference is much of the same as every year. I don't care much for sports games, but StarWars: Fallen Order could be something promising with some more polishing. Ubisoft ran a better showing than usual, but other than the new Watch Dogs: Legion (which looks pretty amusing), they otherwise went with very... safe offerings (oh, and mobile games), probably a bit of a down year for them as they wind up for next year.

The Ugly

Now this was not a category I was expecting (or want) to have at E3, but there are things that have to be said.

So.... Bathesda. Todd Howard *tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies plays in background* walks on stage to thunderous (i mean positively deafening) applause & cheers to even the poorest choice of words, by what can only be described as Ubisoft employees with a gun to their head. But we're used to that at E3, so that's not the problem here. So here's how it goes: 

Todd jokes about Fallout 76 being not up to standard, but that's okay since its a very ambitious project, they have taken critism, and now they are working to put NPCs in the game... soon^TM . Now, let's not put aside how much of an understatement that is, with the shockingly poor state 76 was knowingly launched in (even for Bathesda, bacause they can update it later, right "cuz that's how games are made now" Todd?), the Limited Edition Canvas Bag disaster, the doxing of customers credit card info due to aforementioned fiasco as customers signed up for their replacements, the Nuka Cola Rum scam, and a microtransaction shop so poor it made Anthem, Call of Duty and your average gacha game look glowing in comparison. But fine, at least they have been working on fixing it (despite it being already a full year now) right? Let's give them the benefit of dou.... oh, they spent their time making a Battle Royale mode... that was ripped straight from Battlefield's Firestorm mode... in a game where PvP is (somehow) its most broken, imbalanced aspect. Sure.

Not content with the rancorous applause from his loving fans, they then trotted out... Elder Scrolls Blades for the Switch! *cue deafening cheers*. Well... at least bringing out that microtransaction dispenser of a mobile game from last year reminds us that Fallout 76 is not the worst title they have made in recent years, there's that. With Elder Scrolls 6 delayed but promised to have ten years of content (please.. not games as a service) before anything is set in stone can only make one shudder at the thought.

Despite Doom Eternal and Ghost Wire Tokyo looking pretty promising, its hard to ignore the ugly fall of Bathesda as a publisher since... Dishonored 1. Sure.

Up next is Shenmue 3 and Epic Games Store. For those not in the loop, the previous Kickstarted game (now published by Deep Silver) was unceremoniously declared an Epic Games Store exclusive, with no refunds to any PC users of  other platforms. Steam needs a competitor eventually, yes. But the way Epic is going about it is just distasteful. It began with allowing pre-order customers to keep their Steam keys (Metro Exodus), to pre-order customers and Kickstarter backers eligible to refunds (Phoenix Point), and now no refunds. Coupled with Epic's idea of a sale being Epic paying $10 of the games' cost to publishers, and its just kinda ugly at this point.

First up, to absolutely no one's surprise is Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I have been very skeptical of this project, but the detailed demonstration to a sizable portion of the game put a good portion of those worries to rest.

What I actually liked

Okay now with that sordid affair out of the way, I can proceed to the things I can happily look forward to.

First up, to absolutely no one's surprise is Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I have been very skeptical of this project, but the detailed demonstration to a sizable portion of the game put a good portion of those worries to rest. At the very least in regard to combat, it's every bit of what we could've asked for, the classic ATB system is very much in play here, with autoattacks, blocks and re-positioning filling in the gaps in between commands in a genuinely slick package. The slow-mo pause as you input commands in particular is just smooth. At the very least it seems like they learned a lot from the unfortunately shallow button holding simulator thats is FF15 and finally seem to have found a happy hybrid between the ATB and Kingdom Hearts. And while its unfortunate that the game will come in parts, I could at least understand it. Releasing a full remake of the original game at the level of production they at least intend in a timely manner and charging a normal $60 price tag (as they are now) would be a little unrealistic, and there doesn't seem to be microtransactions to be seen yet, so we will wait and see.

Another pleasant surprise is the announcement of Baldur's Gate 3, now under Larian Studios (of the Divinity: Original Sin fame) instead of Bioware. The game will ostensibly be set around the city of Baldur's Gate once again, but this time with a newer setting of D&D 5th Edition instead of the previous D&D 3.5. They could not have picked a better studio for the job, and we shall see what they can offer us in the coming years.

For those wanting an actual Fallout game, Obsidian, the makers of Fallout: New Vegas will be bringing out The Outer Worlds to sate your appetite, and soon too. It looks solid from what gameplay we get to see and something I will definitely keep an eye on. Epic Store exclusive on PC though, shame.

I like to dub this one Trails of Arise with the Tales series adopting a new look and combat system. For now I'd say the new look is pretty good. Let's just hope its not another Valkyria Revolution >.<

You may have seen me and snwlprd enjoying some Jolly cooperation recently with the first Dying Light. And so far, we're having a pretty good time! From what we can see, Dying Light 2 will be a refinement of the original but otherwise more of the same, this time with some branching story paths with alternate levels (ala Witcher 2). I expect to have a good time playing co-op with this one ^^

Monster Hunter: World's major expansion Iceborne will be hitting shelves in September later this year, and if its anything like the previous Ultimate versions we're gonna have alot to look forward to. The introduction of new mechanics, new maps, new monsters, and most importantly the introduction of G-Rank difficulty (now called Master Rank) will be a nice treat to returning players. Will most likely pick this one up!

Last up is Persona 5 Royal. Persona 5 was great, and if this release is anywhere Near the quality of the P3:FES and P4:Golden, the massive addition of additional content while fixing the problems of the original would make replaying it a worthwhile investment for many. I'm not sure if I can allot the time to replay this mammoth of a game next year ^^" but we shall see.

And that's it for my take on E3 this year, now we wait till Tokyo Game Show and the inevitable Sony showcase down the line. Did any games caught your eye this year? Hope everyone has found something they can look forward to ^^ Until next time.