E3 Thoughts & Highlights

E3 is easily one of my favourite events on the calendar. All the big studios come out to show off their new games and the excitement you get while watching the press conferences is such a joy.

EA were the first cab off the rank and for them I was really hanging out for some Star Wars announcements. Star Wars Battlefront 2 Clone Wars DLC will be dropping with a Geonosis stage and General Grievous, Obi-Wan, Count Dooku and Anakin all playable character which is really exciting for me because I love all of those prequel characters and I fondly remember Geonosis being a very enjoyable stage in the old Battlefront games. Having this new DLC will get be back into playing the game as I’ve well and truly stopped playing it after all the lootbox drama. They also announced a brand new Star Wars title from developer Respawn called Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order coming Christmas, 2019. Nothing else shown but told it's between Episode 3 and 4 during the "Dark Times", as the Republic fell, and Jedi are being hunted. Although I’m really excited that there’s a new game in the works I was a bit disappointed in the way they revealed the game. Nothing was shown, just a hey we’re making it, check back later for more. Like they could have at least shown some concept art or something.

Microsoft were more impressive than I expected. Finally revealing Halo Infinite wasn’t a surprise but the fact that it looks like the first Halo is very intriguing and has me hyped. Frozen coming to Kingdom Hearts 3 is awesome and it looks like they’ve gotten Idina Menzel, Kristin Bell and Josh Gad to reprise their roles which is fantastic. Nothing annoys me more in games when they get back voice actors in to impersonate. That new skating game Session looks sick. I always loved playing the Tony Hawk and Skate games so this will be a welcomed new title. Cyberpunk 2077 looks very promising. And on the heels of Detroit: Become Human I’m all about games that have that futuristic feel. The Cuphead expansion was expected but exciting none the less because that game is the best. Jump Force looks like the crossover game of my dreams. Goku, Naruto & Luffy all in one game. Sign me up!! And the graphics look so realistic which is a big plus in my books. And last but not least NEW BATTLETOADS OH MY CHRIST I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING!!

Bethesda showed off some more of Fallout 76 confirming that it is 100% online which I think will be a fun change. I wasn’t able to get into Fallout 4 so perhaps these changes will make me enjoy the game more. The big announcement for me though was Elder Scroles VI. They didn’t show much but just to know that they are finally working on it is huge. Also that Skyrim/Alexa parody video was hilarious!!

Ubisoft has a pretty decent conference with the main thing I was looking forward to being Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and boy did it live up to my expectations. The game looks so lush in its Greece setting and you can finally choose to play as either a male or female assassin Alexios or Kassandra which is AMAZING!! And you have dialogue options which is very interesting as in past Assassin’s Creed games the modern day story has you following the path without any options so I’m thinking some new Animus must be getting introduced to make these varied dialogue options possible. I can’t wait to get my hands on a demo of this hopefully at PAX AUS. They also announced that Fox is going to be in the Switch version of Starlink a game I knew absolutely nothing about until this announcement. It’s another one of those games that integrates toys into the gameplay similar to something like Skylanders and just the fact that you’ll be able to get an Arwing is enough to get me interested.

I was hanging out for the Sony panel simply for The Last of Us 2 and I was simply blown away by the gameplay trailer they showed. It was so brutal and heartwarming at the same time if that’s even possible. The gameplay ran so seamlessly, it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. I love the minimalist HUD they seem to be implementing as it keeps you engrossed in the story unfolding. The new stealth aspects along with how they are making the enemies smarter look really promising. And just the mocap technology they’ve developed is unbelievable. The guys at Naughty Dog just can’t stop scoring touchdowns.

Death Stranding also looks pretty incredible and I still have no idea what the game is even about. It looks si-fi but honestly it’s hands down one of the weirdest looking games I’ve ever seen but I’m so keen to play it. Again the graphics of the environment and the mocap look so good and I just can’t wait to learn more about this crazy game.

Spider-Man is going to be the Spidy game I’ve always dreamed of. Watching gameplay of him web-slinging around the city puts such a huge smile on my face. It needs to come out like right now.

Yet another trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3 was shown and gave us a look at a Pirates of the Caribbean land which looked great. Not sure if they’ve gotten the actors to reprise their roles but they sounded good in the footage shown and they’ve got the character models down pat thank goodness.

Ghost of Tsushima was a real surprise game for me. I hadn’t followed it at all previously but after seeing the gameplay they showed I’m very keen to play it. The art style they’re using is very pretty and who in their right mind wouldn’t want to play a samurai game?

Another really interesting game for me was Trover Saves The Universe which is being worked on by Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland. I reckon it will most likely be one of those game that people with a particular humour will enjoy and that along with the bright art style makes me very keen to see where it goes.

Finally I set my alarm for Nintendo’s press conference, 2am here in Australia ripppp. And the two big talking points to come from it for me were Smash Bros Ultimate and Super Mario Party.

Smash Bros Ultimate looks amazing. Every single character from previous games coming back is huge. The little tweaks to some characters such as Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey being included for Mario and Link getting his Breath Of The Wild design along with the bombs and arrows used in that game shows just how much detail the development team are willing to put into the game. Also really great that they’re tweaking some of the final smashes to make them more balanced and user friendly. Good bye to the rubbish Landmaster, hated that one so much!! The graphic look slick and hugely improved from Smash Wii U. The way the Inklings play looks like so much fun and it seems as through they handle very similarly to how they are in Splatoon which is so awesome. And Ridley finally being included as a playable character after fans asked for it for so long. It’s great to see that we’re being listened to. I hope that going forward more characters are announced because that’s half the fun of a new Smash game. That excitement and anticipation about who it’s going to be. And another crack at a story mode would be nice. All in all I am hella hyped for Smash.

And finally Mario Party was announced for Switch. I’ve been wanting this for ages so it fantastic to know that it’s finally coming. I loved the use of two Switches to play certain mini games and the mini games they showed looked fresh and exciting, making good use of the joycons. Really looking forward to getting it in October.

E3 this year may not have had many surprises and we really knew everything that was going to be shown before the event even got underway but after seeing everything that was shown I can safely say that the game’s industry is soaring so high and creating so many games that I am dying to play. I am very excited to get my hands on hopefully most of these games at PAX AUS in October. CAN’T WAIT!!

#E3 #VideoGames