E3 Happened

Now that the dust has settled and E3 is over for another year, we take a look back at our predictions, and add some thoughts on the expo itself and the upcoming games shown this year…

Predictions

LEWIS
Well I got myself 2/3 and the only one I didn’t get was Half-Life 3 and since that triggers Graeme I am delighted!

Farming Simulator
So this is weird….. I should have gotten these points twice. I should really give myself 3/3! I called a new farming simulator and also in the trailer for Forza Horizons 4 there were tractors so I got my combination game! (It might be a stretch but so is Rob!)

On a slightly more serious note they did go full “car advert” for the release of Farming Simulator and it was all about how beautiful the tractors look and low sunsets and stuff…. All very dramatic for what is a game where you do all the farming and in the end have to still go buy carrots from Tesco. But ultimately I’ll take the point!

Two Point Hospital

I was so frustrated by this. I wrote my piece and submitted it to the lads to have a look at and then it was all drafted and ready to be put online and I received an email. The email was from the developers of Two Point Hospital encouraging me to go watch their E3 piece in the days coming! I was so gutted. A day previous this E3 piece would have sounded like a good shout and now it just looked, well like I was spouting something I already knew. However it was awesome in the fact that they were “releasing” at E3. Sadly the actual piece that they did at E3 was disappointing in relation to some of the stuff I have got from them previously. I really do think this is going to be a fantastic game, and with the amount I still play Theme Hospital I am madly looking forward to this game. I hope it lives up to my expectations!

ROB
I’ve decided to score each of mine out of … … three, of course.

Half-Life 3

Zero out of three. Half-Life 3 not confirmed.

SOLO: A Lego Star Wars Game

There was no Lego Star Wars at E3, however EA did show off Battlefront II, which includes ‘new’ Han, and Respawn teased Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – a main single player Star Wars for next year. A generous one out of three for that.

HD N64 / GameCube Games

There was no F-Zero, and not even a hint of the rumoured Star Fox racer. No Soul Calibur II HD either. This would be a definite zero out of three if it wasn’t for the fact that Super Smash Bros Ultimate was revealed and will have every character from previous Smash games including, of course, GameCube’s ‘Melee’ – all in glorious HD on the Switch.

0.5 / 3.

GRAEME
Finally, Crackdown 3 got more attention than a little teaser. The game still holds its cartoony visuals, superhuman abilities and free running elements, however, it was disappointing to see that the rumours were true – the release date had been pushed back to February 2019. Whilst this isn’t a concrete release date, and I can easily see this getting delayed again, I’m look forward to returning to Pacific City to cause chaos – all in the name of upholding the law.

Telltale announced the final season of their Walking Dead series, which is nice but I would have preferred to have seen them announce something new or another season of Sam and Max. Ah well.

And finally, Half-Life 3. It’s been over 10 years since fans of the series experienced Gordon Freeman’s adventures and we’ve been left wondering what happened after the end of Half-Life 2: Episode 2’s cliff hanger. Ever since Gabe Newell crashed the 2010 Sony press conference to announce Portal 2 on to PlayStation 3, fans have been hoping that he’d crash some other press conference and announce the sequel we’ve been waiting for. Sadly, this did not happen this year, just like it hasn’t happened in previous years and most likely won’t happen ever. Yet, I still hope I’m wrong. Ah well, at least we still have Marc Laidlaw’s Epistle 3.

Games of interest

LEWIS
So many games peaked my interest this year. I loved the Xbox reveals. I am a bit of an Xbox nerd, which those two guys slag me about but ultimately I really enjoyed watching their release this year. It was just game, game, game, game and was great to watch. On the list were Fallout 76, Forza Horizons 4, Overcooked 2 and Jurassic World Evolution all look amazing and I’m convinced I will be buying them all!

ROB
I am incredibly excited for Super Smash Bros Ultimate. It was already expected to be a focus for Nintendo at E3, but I certainly didn’t expect their Direct to be almost exclusively about the game. Still, I am loving the fact that there will be at least 65 characters included (of which I’ll use two …) and it is looking fantastic. Releasing before Christmas too!

Nintendo did squeeze in a couple of other games into their E3 Direct, including Super Mario Party, which looks like it is going to use the features of the Nintendo Switch to its fullest whilst sticking to the old (and good) Mario Party format.

I am also very interested in Forza Horizon 4, which was one of my highlights of the whole event. Beautiful vehicles, racing around stunning UK locations, including Edinburgh, and with friends?  Consider me tempted by this, and the Xbox One itself.

Trials Rising from RedLynx is coming to the Switch, and that is very nice indeed.

GRAEME
Games, games! Games, games, games!

I’m interested in so much of the games shown this year, but there’s only so much I can talk about. I’m happy to see that a sequel is in production to 2016’s DOOM. It was one of the best games to come out that year, so I’m really happy that its getting a sequel. I cannot wait to punch, rip and tear demons on Earth.

Whilst I was a bit disappointed that a sequel to Prey wasn’t announced, I’m happy that more content has been added to the game and I’m amazed that it’s now out. It may not be a sequel, but it’s additional adventure for a one of my favourite games of 2017. That said, a “prop-hunt” multiplayer mode will also be added to the game, later this summer.

Whilst no release date was shown for Death Stranding, some gameplay was finally shown with some more gorgeous looking cutscenes. However, I still have no idea what the story will be about and if it will make any sense upon release. It’s an exciting time for Kojima and for his fans.

Finally, Bethesda gave an insight into Fallout 76. The game is now online and whilst this worries me slightly, I’ve been warming up to the idea that I’ll be able to the world of Fallout and explore a new wasteland with a few of my pals. Then I’ll be able to send them to some run-down settlement and drop a nuclear missile on them, loot their bodies then run away. Why? Because I’m a right bad guy.

Biggest Surprise

LEWIS
PUBG. I know this sounds silly but I was surprised that they did an E3 release for the fact that it’s just a new map. Lots of games are adding content such as this but for it to be worthy of a release I am not entirely convinced.

ROB
Funnily enough, one of my biggest surprises at this year’s E3 Games Conference for Gamers who play Videogames, was the amount of, well, games on show… Often we are ‘treated’ to filler information on gimmicks and services, boring stats and self-congratulatory sales figures and the like. This year it was (mostly) all about the games and Microsoft’s presentation was particularly relentless with the trailers and announcements. This is a good thing indeed, although there were rumours of Switch getting media apps, so it would have been nice if this was confirmed, and more info on Nintendo Online would have also been welcome.

I found myself enjoying the silliness of the whole thing too. From Limited Run’s low budget ‘presentation’ to Ubisoft and their corporate slapstick and dance routines (it wasn’t all about games …)

GRAEME
With so much games being announced and leaks appearing before E3 had even started, I really wasn’t expecting any surprises this year. Of course, Ubisoft changed that when they revealed a crossover between their new IP, Starlink, and Nintendo’s IP, StarFox.

It was by far one of the most unexpected reveals from E3, which is funny considering that Ubisoft collaborated with Nintendo last year to make a Mario+Rabbids turn based strategy game last year.

I was already interested in the game, but now that StarFox is in the Nintendo Switch version, I’m all up for it. The game could end up being mediocre, but at least we’ll get a daft plastic Arwing model – something my younger self would have killed for.

Future hopes

LEWIS
I’m desperate for a new GTA. Considering how much work they are still putting into the old one and Red Dead 2 I can’t see one being released for another few years but the current one is just getting strung out too much now. I stopped playing it a year or so ago and the fact that you really need to buy shark cards to buy anything fun in the game just makes me not want to play. I have never bought one and never will. Fortnite has this idea cracked. It tempts me to buy stuff so I can have silly dances and new skins but nothing that changed the way I play the game. GTA just seems greedy now. Bring character dances/taunts/skins to a new GTA and I think I will be all over that!

I would also like to see more console crossovers. I see that the Switch and Xbox seem to have the ability to do crossover now that you can play the same Minecraft maps on both. This hopefully will be the first of many! I would love to see Sony get on this train. That way me and the guys could all game together like the old days without having to buy (what in the future will no doubt be) a £5/700 console to do so.

ROB
While it was surprising Nintendo didn’t speak of their Nintendo Online service, I expect it will be shown off in more detail soon. I hope their ‘dedicated’ smartphone app will be feature rich and, on that subject, it’d be class if the Switch does get one or two of the rumoured apps, such as Netflix.

I hope for more teasers and surprises, as it was quite ridiculous how much was leaked / revealed before E3. I’m very much looking forward to more information on Metroid Prime 4 too.

I hope we get more of those Post-Apocalyptic, Ninja, Pirate games, as E3 didn’t have nearly enough of those…

Finally, I pray, for Graeme’s sake especially, that one day we really will be able to say Half-Life 3 Confirmed.

GRAEME
Since the release of the Nintendo Switch, there have been a few games that have been announced to be in development like Bayonetta 3 and Metroid Prime 4. It was surprising that there was no mention of them, so I look forward to seeing them in the coming months, or next E3. I’d also love to see a port of the Wonderful 101 on Nintendo Switch. With that said, the game makes use of dual screens for a few sections, so I have no idea how that would work on the Switch. Mind you, a Wonderful 101 sequel would also make me happy!

And yeah, I still have hope that Gabe and the rest of Valve appear at a future E3 to reveal Half-Life 3 or Left 4 Dead 3. I still have some hope for Valve.