Highlights from the Electronic Entertainment Expo
Lots of anonucements have been dropped over the past couple of weeks, some quite breathtaking, some needing a graphical upgrade.
E3 is drawing to a close but the big reveals have already happened. There are many games releasing this year and next year which we get to look forward to, but let’s dig into the highlights from some of the conferences.
EA
After multiple controversies with the Star Wars Battlefront series from DICE, EA is now trusting Respawn Entertainment with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. This E3 saw gameplay reveals for the game which apparently played better behind the scenes than on stage. EA’s money maker, FIFA 20 was also shown off with some new gameplay mechanics to make the experience more varied. Season 2 of Apex Legends was started of with a double XP weekend, a new character and a new gun, with the developers of Anthem learning a lot from the mixed reviews.
Microsoft
Project Scarlett has a 2020 release and it is launching with Halo Infinite. It’s expected to be four times more pwoerful than the Xbox One and will have a non-mehcnaical SSD, for faster laoding time.
Though one could say that it was CD Projekt Red which stole the Microsoft conference with the reveal of Cyberpunk 2077, and brining Keanu Reeves on stage as John Wick is now a character called Johnny Silverhand. He was breathtaking.
The Project xCloud will soon be open for public testing in October. It is Microsoft’s game streaming service and it promises to delover a high quality experience to smartphones.
Bethesda
Bethesda apologised. Bethesda acknowledged their mistake. Bethesda took a humble approach to the mixed response to Fallout 76 and has now planned a lot of content for the year 2 of the game. If you thought Fallout 76 was a barren wasteland, then the NPCs set to to populate this world will change your mind. Besides NPCs, there will be a Battle Royale mode.
The attention for the Bethesda conference was turned to Doom Eternal which is looking to be an amazing game in single and multiplayer.
Ubisoft
If you have not had enough of London at your time at Imperial, nor had enough of Brexit, then get prepared for Watch Dogs: Legion. It is set in a post-Brexit London. Ubisoft has also introduced its own gaming subscription service adding to the increasingly saturated market for video game subscription services. The Just Dance series is also now celebrating its 10th anniversary.
PC Gaming Show
Deep Silver might be blacklisted from the libraries of many gamers as Shenmue 3 has finally been revealed as an Epic Games Store exclusive. The controversy surrounding this was due to Kickstarter backers of the game being promised a Steam Key, which is now just a fantasy.
Square Enix
Four years have passed since the initial reveal of Final Fantasy VII: Remake at E3 2015 and now we have a March 2020 release (for Part 1). T Midgar has been expanded into a standalone game, so it might be a few years before we see the Remake in its entirety though.
It was quite appropriate to give Squall a face for Final Fantasy VIII Remastered for this game’s 20th year anniversary.
Marvel’s Avengers: A Day opened to some quite mixed reception. Most likely as some fans were hoping to see the MCU Avengers recreated within the game.
Nintendo
Let’s be real. We all expected a character reveal for Super Smash Bros Ultimate at E3. So what did Nintendo do? They revealed two characters - The Hero from the Dragon Quest series (Japan’s beloved RPG series) and Banjo & Kazooie raring into the fight from Banjo-Kazooie.
Zelda has a new haircut, Ganondorf’s body (though looking very lifeless) finally makes an appearance during the Breath of the Wild era of The Legend of Zelda series. A direct sequel is now in development for the Breath of the Wild.
