KK's E3 2019 Coverage

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KK's E3 2019 Coverage

Postby KleinerKiller » Mon Jun 10, 2019 9:20 am

Report From Day 1 (and yeah, EA's conference was technically yesterday but who gives a shit about EA)

MICROSOFT: In a complete reversal from their past few showings, rather bland. They put majority focus on game trailers and mixed a lot of indies in with the AAA titles, which is my favorite kind of E3 conference, but most of the big deals were things we already knew about and there was a startling dearth of actual gameplay footage. The fact that Phantasy Star Online 2 is getting a Western release after years and years of people clamoring for it was the biggest shock of the hour, and there were a lot of cool indies; they also showed off a LEGO Forza and a Funko Pop Gears of War, and I felt myself slipping from this reality. Much pomp and circumstance over the next Xbox, but all we got for the buildup was "Project Scarlet". Overall, middle-of-the-road E3, though the focus on reveal trailers was nice.

- Standout games: Phantasy Star Online wins for sheer unexpectedness and importance, even though I know nothing about it. My personal pick is 12 Minutes, some indie thriller where you're trapped in a time loop and have to stop you and your wife from dying in an apparent home invasion; I'm here or there on Groundhog Day plots, but it looks like an intriguing setup. Spiritfarer looks cute as hell, but also promises to explore death and letting go, so it automatically has my interest. And I must admit I'm curious about the Blair Witch game, both as someone who loves the original movie (and very vocally hates the recent sequel) and to see what the fuck kind of experience was worth incorporating an ancient and incredibly divisive film IP.

- Defining moment: KEANU REEVES COMING OUT FOR CYBERPUNK 2077. And hamming it up like a glorious motherfucker. Love you, Keanu. Stay immortal.

BETHESDA: This isn't one of the all-time worst E3 conferences, but it's certainly the worst I've watched. I was expecting something embarrassing and masturbatory, I was expecting Todd Howard to come out with self-deprecating jokes but no actual apologies or acknowledgements of the major financial scandals they've gotten into, but... wow. No less than four cuts to developers and superfans talking about how important Bethesda is and how it saved their lives (to a point I found legitimately disgusting and exploitative when it came to discussions of how Bethesda saved a girl from suicide), a ridiculous crowd visibly packed with Bethesda employees, and the general tone of the evening all gave me the feeling of watching a cult gathering.
The Fallout 76 devs expected the world because they added in NPCs and dialogue trees (things that should have been in the game from the start), and then dramatically revealed the umpteenth Battle Royale mode because Fortnite is all. Commander Keen got resurrected after 30-ish years to become an embarrassing F2P mobile game. People liked when Todd said "fuck" last year, so tons of other devs got to drop the F-bomb and you could feel how forced it was. I genuinely can't summarize this craven cavalcade of corporate calamity, and I implore you to view it for yourselves.

- Standout games: I'm excited for Ghostwire: Tokyo even if it means Tango Gameworks isn't giving me Evil Within 3, and Deathloop seems interesting, but the standout's DOOM Eternal no question. I knew it would be the highlight ahead of time, and it delivered on everything I wanted and more. Carving up demons and angels alike looks like a whale of a time.

- Defining moment: In terms of positivity, Ikumi Nakamura (a creative head at Tango Gameworks and a key artist for such games as Okami, Bayonetta, and The Evil Within) coming out and melting hearts the world over. She was adorable and she was one of the only people on stage who seemed to genuinely care. But the moment that sums up the rest of the conference has to be Todd strolling proudly onto the stage, laughing off one of the most dire PR disasters in gaming history with a quick "we've had an exciting year" joke, and deflecting into talking about their record high playerbase and how much everybody loves Fallout 76.

DEVOLVER DIGITAL: An absolute joy as always. For those who don't know, Devolver is an indie-focused studio whose E3 conferences are prerecorded fictionalized things mixing real announcements (usually for really cool games) with games industry satire and a bizarre ongoing storyline revolving around domineering, homicidal host Nina Struthers. They really went for the throat this year with the satire, and the games looked cool, although I'm disappointed with the lack of news on last year's announced Metal Wolf Chaos remaster. Story left a bit to be desired, and nothing matched the lunacy of 2018's gore-soaked finale. Still, my favorite "conference" of the day and probably going to be my E3 highlight.

- Standout games: Carrion, a 2D "reverse horror experience" where you control a fleshy alien monster thing and move fluidly through various environments, devouring people. I'm all about that. My Friend Pedro was announced last year, but the ballet-influenced sidescrolling shooter looks as hype as ever, and I'm glad it's got a release date now.

- Defining moment: The moment they announced this year's presentation would be a "Devolver Direct"... and then started using the actual Nintendo Direct graphics and audio. Good god, I hope they got permission and don't get sued, but if they do, the hustle was worth it.

Tomorrow I'll do a write-up for Ubisoft, Square Enix, and possibly the PC Gaming Show; then I'll wrap this E3 with Nintendo on Tuesday (and hopefully get my Metroid news). Stay tuned!
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"Your mind is software. Program it. Your body is a shell. Change it. Death is a disease. Cure it." - Eclipse Phase

NEW REVIEW! Judgment / Judge Eyes (2019)
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Re: KK's E3 2019 Coverage

Postby KleinerKiller » Mon Jun 10, 2019 10:28 pm



Just finished the Ubi conference. I'll sum up my thoughts tonight, but... *yawn*... yikes.
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"Your mind is software. Program it. Your body is a shell. Change it. Death is a disease. Cure it." - Eclipse Phase

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Re: KK's E3 2019 Coverage

Postby KleinerKiller » Tue Jun 11, 2019 6:19 am

Day 2

Missed the PC Gaming Show stream, but I heard it was -- in a shocking reversal from previous years -- remotely fun and watchable. Luckily, all that got announced were a bunch of ports and stuff, so I don't have to sit through a recording.

UBISOFT: I honestly didn't think anything could beat Bethesda for the worst conference of the year, but goddamn, I've got to hand it to Ubisoft. Where Bethesda got some great games stuck in between the mire of self-fellating corporate filth, this was just mind-numbingly dull. It got off to a half-decent start with a Watch Dogs Legion showcase, and that game looks alright, but it was followed by a solid hour of bland, samey Tom Clancy shooters. Anything that looked remotely interesting quickly devolved into the usual formula, and things ran together so much that I genuinely mistook The Division 2's story teaser for another look at Ghost Recon Breakpoint because they're pitched with the exact same "what if the enemy we had to fight was our rogue friends" premise. Jon Bernthal brought a nice dog onstage, and Rob McElhenny of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia fame showed up to pitch a weird TV show about game development. That's it.

- Standout games: The only thing I'm remotely interested in is Watch Dogs Legion, because you can play as a wild amount of diverse characters including a PIGEON-FEEDING HACKER GRANDMA. And I might be interested in Gods & Monsters, the myth-focused game by the Assassin's Creed Odyssey team, if it had any gameplay footage or really any solid depiction of what it was supposed to be -- despite apparently being set to come out in a little over half a year, all we got was a cutscene.

- Defining moment: When the conference abruptly ended with a sizzle reel set to unfitting licensed music and hard cut to some lame e-sports contest. The runner-up was when the Ghost Recon devs proudly unveiled the fourth or fifth Terminator: Dark Fate tie-in of this E3, smiling and talking as if nobody else was going to offer such a novel crossover experience.

SQUARE ENIX: I had high hopes for this conference, and they delivered at first. We came roaring out of the gate with an extended look at Final Fantasy VII Remake, which assuaged my fears about the active combat system, showed off a lot of depth and detail in Midgar, and -- most importantly -- FINALLY REVEALED TIFA. But this conference showed the dangers of putting your only big attraction up front, as we spent the rest of the hour delving into rereleases and remasters (of which the only one I find remotely noteworthy is the long-ignored Final Fantasy VIII), each of which took up way too much time for comparatively little blowout. Then there was an attempt at a big finish by showing off the long-hyped Crystal Dynamics Avengers game, but it looked... not good. Bad, even. The few seconds of gameplay we got to see looked unremarkable, the obligatory MCU stylings don't blend in well, and twice they pulled the "we have something we think you'll like" card to show two short cutscenes with nothing to offer. And yet, I've still got to give Squeenix the best showing of the four big traditional conferences, narrowly beating out Microsoft because the Remake stuff was genuinely hype as hell.

- Standout games: Come on, is it any contest? FFVII Remake is the only big standout that I'm interested in. I'm sure fans of Dragon Quest Builders got something out of Builders 2 getting almost as much dedicated time as Remake, but nearly everything that wasn't Remake bored me to tears. And this isn't just me being salty because there's still no mention of Babylon's Fall or the next rumored NieR followup. I am salty about that, but that's unrelated.

- Defining moment: I can't pick between the Remake demo opening with the classic start screen as a segue into the start of the conference, the genuine uproarious applause when Tifa showed up ( <3 ), the thousand red flags that sprung up when the immediate follow-up to Remake was a trailer for Life Is Strange 2 featuring a montage of YouTuber reaction footage, or the fumbling, lukewarm mess that was the conclusion. Ah well.

If Nintendo doesn't pull some magic out tomorrow morning, this whole thing will have been a wash outside of Devolver's usual greatness and a few awesome titles which we mostly knew about already. As it stands, this is certainly the most boring E3 I've ever sat through. I know some of that's down to Sony sitting this one out to prep for the PS5, and devs being hesitant to show off any big surprises or gameplay footage because next year is the unveiling of next-generation consoles (the console gen transition period is the worst fucking time for the games industry, I swear), but still... eh.
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"Your mind is software. Program it. Your body is a shell. Change it. Death is a disease. Cure it." - Eclipse Phase

NEW REVIEW! Judgment / Judge Eyes (2019)
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Re: KK's E3 2019 Coverage

Postby KleinerKiller » Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:37 pm

Day 3: Finale

NINTENDO: Well, great job, Nintendo. Despite waking me up super early and not showing any of the things I actually cared about (i.e. Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3), you still managed to be really fun. We're getting Banjo-Kazooie and some Dragon Quest guys in Smash, and I don't really care about either of those things, but it's so infectiously charming that I'm happy for the people who were waiting on them. Luigi's Mansion 3 looks really fun, and while I'm not a fan of either franchise, I know the announcement of No More Heroes III and Panzer Dragoon is significant. And then they finished big with a Breath of the Wild sequel announcement, and it actually landed, unlike every other big finisher at this E3! Focus was kept squarely on the games, no new hardware demonstrations or long speeches. Overall, just a good-ass Nintendo Direct.

- Standout games: Luigi's Mansion 3 looks so charming, Astral Chain looks as hype as ever, and Breath of the Wild 2 is winning me over on premise alone even though I didn't think the original was an absolute legendary masterpiece.

- Defining moment: The fake-out with Banjo & Kazooie's silhouette actually being Duck Hunt Dog, then getting crushed by the real Banjo & Kazooie, was pretty funny.

***

And that's it for this year's E3. Overall: meh. This was by far the most boring year I've watched yet. Proper gameplay trailers were few and far between because all of the big stuff's being developed for the new console generation, a lot of the cinematic trailers failed to leave an impression on me, and there wasn't even any legendary E3 cringe outside of Bethesda's just... awful self-aggrandizing / overzealous audience. Lots of cool stuff got announced, but the presentation overall made them less impactful than they otherwise might have been.

But Square showed off Remake Tifa. So in the end, did it really matter?

CONFERENCE RANKING

6) Ubisoft (D). Wake me up, wake me up inside, I can't wake up, 'cause I'm fuckin' bored. Ubisoft's panel was the only one I went into with absolutely no good or bad expectations, and yet those expectations were still not met. Opening with a solid Watch Dogs: Legion showcase, Ubi proceeded to do everything in its power to make me weep for the state of AAA gaming by showing off shooter after shooter after shooter, most under the Tom Clancy brand in some form or another. Jon Bernthal and Rob McElhenny were decent guests, but after Keanu Reeves raised hell at Microsoft, they just couldn't step out from under his shadow. I'm left entirely hollow.

5) Bethesda (D- for Bethesda Game Studios, B for Softworks, averages to C / C-). This conference will at least live on in infamy as the perfect capstone to Bethesda's greatest PR disaster ever. While the companies under the Softworks name struggled to deliver genuinely great games (and Ikumi Nakamura made herself an instant internet icon), all cracked and filthy roads led back to Fraudd Coward. The sheer nerve of Bethesda's top brass to not just crack mild self-effacing jokes about the FO76 mess -- a controversy that devolved into stolen credit card information, repeated false advertising and consumer mistreatment, and screwing over even their loyal player base in every way possible -- but to distract from and minimize it, to stack the deck with fanatical loyalists and feature extended video packages from fans and staff about how vital and important Bethesda is to their lives and the health of the gaming industry... I was blown away with disgust. But at least I wasn't bored, and DOOM Eternal was really, really cool.

4) Square Enix (B-). I debated for a long time (read: five minutes) over whether to put Squeenix or Microsoft in this spot, but with the benefit of hindsight as to how the rest of E3 turned out, I think Microsoft put out a better showing overall. Squeenix rested entirely on an absolutely stellar Final Fantasy VII Remake showcase, and when that was over, they proceeded to do almost nothing of note. Don't get me wrong, it's cool that Final Fantasy VIII and a bunch of other RPGs I've never played are getting remastered, and I'm happy for you if one of your favorites has a shiny new look. But that storm of rereleases and revisits, bookended by the cringey Life Is Strange reaction trailer and the blank void that was the Avengers showcase, served to do nothing but put me to sleep. But hey, Remake looks great, and Remake Tifa looks great.

3) Devolver Digital (A- enjoyment, B quality). As always, it was a wild good time and I'm left waiting with bated breath for next year's madness. Mariah Zook is an eternal delight in the role of Nina Struthers, the jokes were more pointed than ever, and the gore is still gory. If it had been longer than 20-30 minutes and the storyline had gone to crazier places, this would rank higher, but as it stands, it doesn't beat the masterstroke of shock and madness they delivered in 2018. And while I enjoyed my time with it more than any of the other big conferences, I can't really rank it higher.

2) Microsoft (B). What a depressing conclusion we've reached when a presentation I initially judged as rather dull turned out to be one of the best of the bunch. But while Microsoft fumbled their Xbox non-announcement, the big finish with Halo Infinite, and tons of other points, they were still far and away the most successful of the four huge conferences in my eyes. Keanu Reeves' Cyberpunk reveal was great, as were all of the cool-looking indie games being shown off on a regular basis. They put the focus on the world premieres, and while it didn't blow my mind or get me super hyped, it delivered some stuff.

1) Nintendo (B+). See my above thoughts. I'm not even a big fan of Nintendo as a company, despite loving a ton of their games, but they carried this thing away easily.

E3 2019 Grade Overall: C
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"Your mind is software. Program it. Your body is a shell. Change it. Death is a disease. Cure it." - Eclipse Phase

NEW REVIEW! Judgment / Judge Eyes (2019)
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Re: KK's E3 2019 Coverage

Postby iMURDAu » Tue Jun 11, 2019 9:38 pm

If consumers weren't such hardware sluts it wouldn't be an issue to have an exciting E3 during a console transition period but most people want to know when they can buy another XBox or Playstation, and then another revision two years after, and so on. Games are just a thing that were promised. Nobody seemed to care that The Witcher III was about the only thing going on PS4 for the longest time while XBone had Forza and Madden wif betta grafix d00dz.

Nintendo nailed it with their Direct. Just over 40 minutes and all they talked about were games. Two Smash DLC characters were revealed. And then they dropped a bomb at the end letting us know a sequel to Breath of the Wild is in development. The only thing I'd fault them on is the number of ports.... not named GTA V. Seriously Nintendo. C'mon already. What is the hold up?
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Re: KK's E3 2019 Coverage

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Mon Jun 17, 2019 6:52 pm

Witcher 3 the only big PS4 exclusive? Bloodborne would like a word with you.

Maybe I don't understand how e3 works, but Nintendo didn't want to talk about the only games I'm anticipating this year (aside from cyberpunk, and you know we're in a bad year when I'm hoping Nintendo salvages the year for me) and that aren't just the usual nth iteration of Mario: Fire Emblem and Pokemon?
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Re: KK's E3 2019 Coverage

Postby iMURDAu » Mon Jun 17, 2019 11:19 pm

Oh okay yeah Bloodborne, two games.

And what games did you want Nintendo to go in depth on? They're usually the same all year long. They have a live Direct almost monthly that might showcase a single title or show a lot of games briefly. Then they might follow that up with a "Treehouse" segment of their people playing one of the games but they only show what they're allowed to show and talk about what they're allowed to talk about. For example they showed literally nothing new about SMM 2 during their time playing it.
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Re: KK's E3 2019 Coverage

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:46 am

iMURDAu wrote:Oh okay yeah Bloodborne, two games.

And what games did you want Nintendo to go in depth on? They're usually the same all year long. They have a live Direct almost monthly that might showcase a single title or show a lot of games briefly. Then they might follow that up with a "Treehouse" segment of their people playing one of the games but they only show what they're allowed to show and talk about what they're allowed to talk about. For example they showed literally nothing new about SMM 2 during their time playing it.


Oh, I was just hoping for more deetz on Fire Emblem, which is coming out next month or Pokemans, which is coming out later this year.
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Re: KK's E3 2019 Coverage

Postby iMURDAu » Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:43 pm

I'll bet each big toe they'll do a Direct for each.
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