FIRST PARTY DEVELOPERS
Microsoft XBox
As always, Phil Spencer opened and closed the XBox press conference. In the opening, Phil announced the XBox presentation would consist of over 50 games. I thought to myself, "Wow, that will take a while to get through. Indeed, it did take 1 hour 40 minutes (that's literally 100 minutes!) for XBox to get through its showcase. But for the most case, as we have seen in recent E3 press conferences, most of game presentations were cinematic trailers. They did restrict themselves from last year, though. Instead of the 30 game ID@XBOX game montage from last year, this year's ID@XBOX montage was only for 20 games.
Microsoft, as a publisher, put a heavy emphasis on the developers they had acquired. This has both positive and negative quality. On the positive side, buying these developers will provide small developers the funds they need to make better games. On the negative side, I fear Microsoft (as well as other game publishers) will use the developers' name to convince games the game is good without putting any quality control into it. With Microsoft buying these developers, naturally console exclusives will follow. Let's examine how XBox handled their most famous exclusives. Of course, XBox was smart to lead with Halo Infinite. The Halo franchise made XBox famous. The problem, however, was that no one knew really knew it was XBox. At first, it looked like Microsoft was simply showing off the XBox One X's 4K capabilities with a nature scene. It wasn't until the end, when the viewers saw Master Chief's helmet that they knew it was a game from the Halo series. Upon further review, this doesn't seem like the Halo 6 Halo fans wanted. This looks like an open world Halo game on a halo. In reality, it's just an announcement and nothing more.Near the end of the press conference, XBox displayed the skull in the gear, which every gamer knows as the Gears of War symbol. At first, the audience got super excited. They thought this was the big announcement for the next Gears of War game. Viewers found themselves surprised, however, when they saw a Pop! toy break out of the wall. XBox announced Gears Pop!, a Gears of War game game for the mobile device. Next, the announced Gears Tactics, a PC strategy game from the Gears of War series. Then they finally announced Gears 5. Then the watchers lost it. I kind of liked how XBox played the audience like that. It led the audience to think the next Gears of War game was coming, but then it wasn't coming, only it was really coming. Gears 5 wasn't just an announcement like Halo Inifinite. Gamers saw a cinematic trailer, with both old and new faces. Some speculate it's not a real main series game because it's Gears 5 and not Gears of War 5. I think it's just a short hand. Besides, they are less likely to confuse GOW 5 as God of War 5. All 3 games announced for Gears of War can get the fanboy excited. And of course let's not forget Crackdown 3, but at the same time, it's worth forgetting. The audience got another cinematic trailer. No one learned more about the game. It's all probably due yet another delay in release. The game best displayed during the XBox presentation (and probably the all the press conferences) was Forza Horizon 4. The audience saw both a cinematic trailer and a real, live gameplay demo. Playground Games well mapped out the terrain of Britain. I appreciate how they thought how seasons and weather could impact game modes, not just driving.
Microsoft also dedicated time to prove they had thirty party publishers supporting them. From Electronic Arts, the audience saw Battlefield V. From Bethesda, viewers saw Fallout 76. Capcom brought Devil May Cry 5. I still think it looks more like DMC than Devil May Cry 4. Square Enix gave the most to XBox. Those watching saw The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, Nier: Automata, Kingdom Hearts III, Shadows of the Tomb Raider and Just Cause 4. You can tell XBox beamed with pride announcing they would finally have a Kingdom Hearts game. In my opinion, the best third party presentation was Ubisoft's Tom Clancey's The Division 2. Once again, the audience saw both a cinematic trailer and gameplay demo, although their gameplay demo was pre-recorder and probably highly rehearsed. To me, it looks like Tom Clancey's The Division 1 but in Washington, D.C. instead of New York. Still, it looks like Massive Entertainment took the time to fine tune and perfect the game.
After faking out the audience concerning Gears 5, Microsoft had one last fake out to pull. It looked like Phil Spencer was closing the press conference, when the screens around seemed to glitch and seemed like they were getting hacked. It led into the cinematic trailer for Cyberpunk 2077. While I appreciate Cyberpunk 2077 brings some color to the post-apocalyptic future, what game genre does it fit in? Will it be a FPS, TPS, RPG, RTS or open world game? Actually, that describes most of the games presented during XBox's showcase. The cinematic trailer told a lot about the story, but it left me out in the cold for gameplay. You don't need that for the sequels of well-known games, but it's definitely required for brand new titles. The XBox press conference wasn't excited as I thought it would be, and it did not encourage me to buy an XBox One, especially an XBox One X.
+Positives+: XBox suprised the audience a few times, they had both games to display from both first party developers and third party developers, had a real life demo of Forza Horizon 4
-Negatives-: Too long yet still didn't cover enough, too many sequels, trying to impress you with studios instead of their games
~Best Game~: Forza Horizon 4
*Medal*: Silver
Sony PlayStation
When Sony's press conference went live, online watchers saw the live audience crammed in this church-looking building with one medium-sized screen in the front of the building. I couldn't believe the whole showcase would happen in that building. A man came out with a banjo and played a song. I could tell that it was leading into Last of Us Part 2, but they dragged it to long. They eventually got to the cinematic trailer, which led to a gameplay demo (once again pre-recorder, and once again, probably highly rehearsed). It does look beautiful, and it does look like a fun game to play. Then the press conference went to what PlayStation called a "short intermission" but was really a long intermission. No joke; I clocked it as a 12 1/2 minute intermission. 12 1/2 minutes is not a short intermission. It is a long intermission. Listen, Sony, I know that The Last of Us Part 2 was your big game for the PlayStation this year, but did you really have to put the whole audience in that church-like structure to make them feel they were in the hall with Ellie? You burned 12 1/2 minutes which you could have spent demonstrating another game. Subtracting the intermission, you gave your gamers a 65-minute showcase. Many 3rd party publishers gave a longer presentation that that!
When the intermission wrapped up, the press conference started up with another live instrumental performance. Once again, watching it I thought to myself, "Alright, it's taking place in feudal Japan. Let's move on to the actual game." Indeed, Ghost of Tsushimi looked beautiful between is cinematic trailer and its [pre-recorded, highly rehearsed] gameplay demo, but Sony could have spent more time talking about the game without the dragged-out musical performance. Speaking of music, transitioning between games, the audience saw short clips of vegetables playing instruments. Later on, I found out it's from Dreams, but if you don't know that, you're wondering, "What's that about?"
Before moving on, everyone should know Sony promised the press that they would not do what they did last year by rapid firing a bunch of short trailer for multiple games. Instead, they would focus on showing a few games in-depth. Well, either PlayStation is a hypocrite or they took back what they said, for that exactly describes their press conference. Sure, they did have some of that, but for the most part, it was rapid fire cinematic trailers. As I said earlier, this works for sequels, but not for brand new games, and Sony had a lot of brand new games. For example, I saw a game call Control previewed. What's it about? I don't know. All I saw was a cinematic trailer. Only seeing a cinematic trailer for Death Stranding, it more weirded me out than wowed me. It did not make me want to play that game. Finally, PlayStation closed out its showcase by putting Spider-Man on display for the 3rd consecutive E3. For the 3rd consecutive E3, it got old. It showed nothing new. In fact, now Spider-Man feels like an Arkham Assylum clone.
In concluding the Sony press conference, what I find so tragic about the Sony press conference is the live streaming that followed it the next few days. Take the first 8 live streams PlayStation did. They take up the same time as the Sony press conference (including the intermission), yet they are more entertaining. You see cinematic trailers, gameplay demos, developer interviews and so much more. If PlayStation would have done that for 65 minutes or 80 minutes, they would have won. Instead, they had the worst press conference.
+Positives+: Has stunning 4K graphics (without having to brag about them), focused on games that tell good stories
-Negatives-: One long intermission, several short and unexplained intermissions, fell back to rapid-firing cinematic trailers, no explanation to how new games played, Spider-Man felt old
~Best Game~: Last of Us Part 2
*Medal*: Bronze
Nintendo
For their 6th consecutive year, Nintendo did a pre-recorded "Nintendo Direct" instead of a live press conference. Nintendo started off with a bang with Demon X Machina and the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 DLC Torna ~ The Golden Country. These 2 presentations demonstrated what the Switch could do. As I watched these cinematic trailers, I kept thinking to myself, "I can't believe this is on a Nintendo console!" Next, watchers saw Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eeevee. True, nothing new came out about the games, but it reviewed all the highlights of the new Pokemon games, and it continued the same excitement. Then came Super Mario Party. At first, I was surprised it wasn't called Mario Party 11, but I quickly forgot about that. I was too impressed on what it could do. Super Mario Party is clearly meant for portable multiplayer. One of the most impressive feats was connecting 2 Switch consoles to have double screens for minigames. True, it might be hard to find someone with another Switch, but it really displayed what the Switch could do. Of course, with battle royale becoming the popular gaming genre, Nintendo made sure its fans knew it was getting involved. Fortnite is coming to Switch. And all this took place in the first 17 minutes of the Nintendo Direct.
Nintendo reserved the last 25 minutes for what everybody wanted to hear the most. Nintendo dedicated the last 25 minutes to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Everyone can relax. Sakurai returned to direct. Anyone can tell Masahiro Sakurai had the fanboys and the competitive circuit in mind. For starters, every character that's even been in a Super Smash Bros. will be in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Still, it wouldn't be a new Super Smash Bros. game without new characters. Everyone knew about the Inkling due to the the announcement trailer. Masahiro put some good thought into the Inkling. Splatter shot causes the fighter to receive more damage. The roller slow fighters down. Inklings have to recharge with shield + B. At the end of the presentation, Then at the end of the Nintendo Direct, they announced Ridley as newest fighter! Finally one of the most requested fighters come to Super Smash Bros. I see why Sakurai didn't want Ridley at first. Ridley looks so small in comparison to all the fighters. Contrast that to the Metroid games, where Ridley looks huge! New gameplay features also reveal that the developers kept fanboys and the competitive community in mind. Air dodging is back. Assist trophies can be knocked and cause a loss of stock. Any characters who have charge up or power down abilities will have a meter next to their icon. Final smashes have all been redesigned to act quick. Most importantly, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will have Game Cube controller support. Even better, those who bought the Wii U Game Cube ports don't have to buy another one, for the Switch will support the Wii U peripheral. Speaking of peripherals, not only can Super Smash Bros. Ultimate support the amiibos of the previous game(s), it also will carry out the saved data in them. I have no doubt that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will become the best Super Smash Bros. games ever.
Before concluding Nintendo, I want you to recall what I said about Sony's post-showcase live streams. Nintendo had live streams after their Nintendo Direct called "Treehouse Live." The average live stream for PlayStation was 10-15 minutes. The average Treehouse Live session lasted 20-30 minutes. If you can't tell by the times, I learned more about the Nintendo games than the PlayStation games. Nintendo is the first of E3 that made me want to buy a Switch. Oh, and speaking of Switch, I was right, the 3DS is dead. Nintendo only placed 2 3DS games on display, and both of them were ports of Switch games. I hope everyone likes the Switch as a handheld system because that's the direction Nintendo is going.
+Positives+: Nintendo displayed its graphical capabilities, Nintendo had third party support, Nintendo demonstrated online capabilities, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate made for fanboys and competitive circuit alike.
-Negatives-: No mention of Metroid Prime 4
~Best Game~: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
*Medal*: Gold
THIRD PARTY DEVELOPERS
Ubisoft
O Ubisoft, do you have to do a big musical performance every time you make a new Just Dance game, which is every year? Apparently yes, yes they do. The second I saw the panda dressed in a marching band uniform, I knew it must be Just Dance 2019. Interesting enough, they didn't announce new gameplay or new songs. It simply announced the game was coming out. The next game was Beyond Good and Evil 2. I still don't understand how a prequel has the number 2 as a suffix. The game had a long cinematic trailer, showing all the characters. Jade gave the biggest surprise, as she was a bad guy instead of a good guy. Overall, it made fans happy, knowing their game did not stand still in development puragatory, although Ubisoft gave no release date. To present the next game, the director came out on a motorbike, making quite the ruckus. Of course, it was for Trials Rising. This new Trails game looked like it returned to its roots as an all-out just fun and not to serious motorbike racing and stunt game. Then came Tom Clancey's The Division 2. While the audience did not see any new gameplay footage because it appeare don the XBox press conference, Ubisoft announced new game features, like raids and classes. Skull & Bones appeared at Ubisoft's E3 press conference. Last year's E#, I thought Ubisoft would simply elongate the ship missions from Assassins Creed III and IV. At this year's E3, I could tell they put a lot of thought in graphics, gameplay and story, especially on the multiplayer level.
Ubisoft demonstrated they did not fear incorporating new technology into video games. Ubisoft continues to develop for VR, as seen in Transference. With Elijah Wood producing and Jack Black acting in it, anyone can tell how serious this story will be. While many gamers have declared the toys-to-life genre dead, Ubisoft still experiments with it. Starlink looks awesome. I like how the parts change out to build and improve the ship. I like how the ship's pilot has special abilities which affect gameplay. As if this game couldn't get better, Ubisoft announces that they teamed up with Nintendo to add Fox McCloud as a playable character exclusive to the Switch. If I were to purchase Starlink, I would totally get it for the Switch.
Ubisoft closed out their presentation with Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Ubisoft gave its viewers both a cinematic trailer and a gameplay trailer. For the first time in the series, the game will allow the player to choose to play as a male or female main character. Watching the trailer and the gameplay, it does not look or feel like an Assassins Creed game. As much as I hate stealth missions, without those stealth missions, it looks like a beat 'em up game. Besides that, it looks stunning. Looks, however, mean nothing if it doesn't play like an Assassins Creed game.
Overall, Ubisoft had the most entertaining presentation. I enjoyed watching all the ways Ubisoft could think of presenting the games. Of all the presentations, Ubisoft's press conference best explained the games. All their I have a feeling for how they will play. I got excited about their games.
+Positives+: Entertaining introduction to presentations, displayed both VR and toys-to-life games, provided a full understanding of how the games worked, Shigeru Miyamoto appearing with Yves Guillmont for Starlink
-Negative-: Too many music performances, Assassin's Creed Odyssey doesn't look or feel like an Assassins Creed game
~Best Game~: Starlink: Battle for Atlas (especially Switch version)
*Medal*: Gold
Bethesda
In 2016, Bethesda spent too much time speaking about too few games. In 2017, Bethesda spent too little time talking about too many games. In 2018, Bethesda finally got the balance correct. They spent most of the time highlighting the bran new games, like Rage 2 and Fallout 76. Then they briefly mentioned their old games having new life with updates, updates and expansion packs. Such games included Quake Champions and Prey. Bethesda seemed to milk everything they had from Wolfenstein and The Elder Scrolls. For Wolfenstein, they presented Wolfenstein: Young Blood and Wolfeinsten: Cyber Pilot. From the Elder Scrolls, they presented Elder Scrolls: Legends, Elder Scrolls Online, Elder Scrolls: Blades and even a teaser for Elder Scrolls VI. Despite milking both franchises, the fans didn't mind. In fact, the fans loved it! Bethesda claims they have a game for everyone, they gave such a presentation it's hard to deny.
+Positives+: An array of games from a plethora of game genres for a variety of ports
-Negatives-: Milking famous franchises for all their worth
~Best Game~: Elder Scrolls: Blades
*Medal*: Silver
Electronic Arts (EA)
The Electronic Arts press conference was a typical EA Press Conference. EA Sports announced the next year's Madden game, the next year's FIFA game and the next year's NBA Live. For each of these games, they never demonstrated gameplay nor did they talk about these games in-depth. The audience saw short cinematic trailers for each game, and that was it. For the FIFA game, the producers talked about the excitement of winning trophies, but that really doesn't constitute talking about the game. For the Madden game, we saw a pro football player and pro e-sports player trash talk one another. That didn't tell us anything about the latest Madden. If anything, it was the most awkward thing to watch. Heck, I bet it was awkward for those 2 gentlemen. I bet the football player was thinking, "This is so dumb I have to treat a football video game like real football, the e-sports player was probably thinking, "This is so dumb I have to trash talk someone who can't play video games." All in all, I would barely call EA Sports presenting their games. It's more like an announcement. If you're not going to talk about new or improved features, why bother saying or showing anything?
The rest of EA's game didn't do any better. Battlefield V didn't talk a lot about how gameplay is different beside a different setting in history. The producers might have well got on stage, said, "This is a new Battlefield game! Just get excited another Battlefield game is coming out!" and walked off the stage. Then came Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. EA knew they had a winner with a Star Wars game. After all, Star Wars Battlefront II was such a hit the previous year, so another Star Wars game would be a hit this year, right? Well, the problem is all EA had for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was an announcement from Stig Asmussen, a developer from Respawn Entertainment, the same developers who made the Titanfall series. No gameplay demo, no cinematic trailer, not even a title card or title art. Just a title. Reporter Andrea Rene had to grasp at straws with the most basic questions, like "What game genre is it?" or "Is it an open world or linear game?" with no good answers in return. In fact, Andrea had to stoop down to, "Can I wield a lightsaber?" to finally confirm something about the game. I'm already predicting by E3 2019, we'll see a cinematic trailer for this game, by E3 2020, we'll see a second cinematic trailer with a gameplay demo, and finally in 2021 the game will be released. I hate when developers do that to their games. Don't try to get gamers hyped until you have a working prototype.
Electronic Arts attempted to show their supported indie developers trying to get their start in the triple-A industry. EA has done a good job of finding brand new creators to make hit games, from Unravel to A Way Out. This year, however, EA did not do such a good job. Unravel 2, the sequel from their hit indie game Unravel, just came out. At first glance, it looks like the cooperative multiplayer might add a new layer to the puzzle solving, but at further glance, it's just your typical cooperative puzzle game. EA had a brand new indie game called Sea of Solitude. From first glance, it looks it has potential. The developer promised it would have an enthrall story. EA forgot, however, that when it comes to video games, good gameplay assists in telling the story. Whenever you have new, original game, you can't just show a trailer. You have to show gameplay. I know what the story is about, but what about the gameplay? Is it a platformer, FPS, TPS, RTS, RPG? Gameplay preview would have helped that.
Electronic Arts concluded their presentation with Anthem. EA dedicated the last half hour to it. It came with cinematic trailer and gameplay demo, although once again, it was pre-recorded and highly rehearsed. At the director and producer were there to explain how gameplay works. I think the elongated time spent on Anthem hurt the game in the long run. The more gamers saw, the more they realized it's a Destiny 2 clone. If gamers want to play a Destiny game, they will play Destiny 2.
+Positives+: EA supports indie developers
-Negatives-: All EA Sports games were pretty much announcements, little to no details about Battlefield V or Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Sea of Solitude need gameplay explanation
~Best Game~: Sea of Solitude
*Medal*: Bronze
You'll notice I did not mention Square Enix. That's because they did not place. They get an honorable mention at best and an dishonorable mention at worst. In a half hour, they gave us full gameplay of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and then they rapid fire a bunch of short trailers for any and all games coming out in the near or distant future. Even ending on Kingdom Hearts III did not help, for it didn't add anything new. Hearing nothing about the enhanced remake of Final Fantasy VII didn't help either. It probably would have helped PlayStation. After all, Final Fantasy VII helped make the the PS1 famous. Now only tell will tell if all these developers and publishers will live up to the hype.
