E3 2018 Post-Mortem Part 1: Ranking the Press Conferences (First Half)

E3 has returned to Los Angeles for 2018 and once again I'm looking at each of the press conferences step by step. Let's see if the big companies made a big improvement from last year's somewhat underwhelming offerings...

EA

The Good

• Passionate presenter Andrea Rene

While EA’s presenters at E3 have been standard fare over the years, Andrea Rene took the stage this time around and definitely stood out for her cheerful demeanour and passion. Despite all the horrible rhetoric from EA bosses and basic presentations from developers, she did her best to keep things moving along and the audience engaged. For the most part it worked, and she would do well to come back and host again for next year if EA gets their act together.

• Indie titles Unravel 2 and Sea of Solitude

The one shining spot in EA’s dumpster fire of a publisher reputation is its indie titles; there really is some genuine creativity going on here and a couple of proud developers showcased their visions with real conviction. Unravel 2’s creator Martin Sahlin and Sea of Solitude’s Jo-Mei both stood out among all the other developers who barely had a chance to show off their latest products. They’re both proof that even with all EA’s missteps, there’s still some artistic creativity coming out of the studio.

The Bad

• The butchering of Command and Conquer on mobile

As one of the most popular strategy gaming franchises of all time, Command and Conquer has been dormant since EA pulled the plug on the main series back in 2012. Personally I've never played the series, but it's hard not to see the impact it had on the industry. This year, they saw fit to bring it back, but in the worst way possible. Command and Conquer Rivals is a stripped down mobile game, designed to extract maximum value from a mass market audience with minimal development costs. Adding further insult to injury, Rivals was the only title of EA’s entire presser to have a full gameplay presentation which ironically speaks volumes of where their priorities lie.

• A general lack of caring and no details on Star Wars titles

While there were some developers who made a point that there titles would not have the dreaded loot boxes seen in the Star Wars Battlefront 2 fiasco last year, EA stood out among the other conferences for being incredibly arrogant; there was no official apology or admittances of guilt, no promises to do better, only manipulative spin about EA were going to make gamers happy, give them choice and so on. Rarely has a company sunk so low in the gaming industry and rather than work to make amends, Electronic Arts has the cheek to keep talking down to their fans. It also didn’t help when the next Star Wars title (Which EA still has a monopoly on by the way) was relegated to a quick chat in the audience with developer Respawn Entertainment. It was incredibly contemptuous all around.

• Anthem’s basic showing and lack of details

Anthem stands as the biggest title coming from EA right now and after its initial announcement last year, we were hoping for some further details on what the game is like under the surface. Unfortunately, they saw fit to put out a very similar demo involving flying around the environment and killing mobs of enemies which raises the question: Is Bioware set for the chopping block? They will be if Anthem doesn’t succeed next year and while this year’s demo looked cool from an aesthetic standpoint, we still know nothing about the story, characters and game world about eight months from release. Mass Effect: Andromeda had the same problem, but this time the Canadian developer won’t be able to survive another critical failure. It will be a crying shame to see them leave the industry, but who knows? Maybe they can pull it together before Anthem’s release next year.

The Verdict

Outside of a capable host and some passionate indie titles, EA’s showing was very poor; they just didn’t have anything exciting to show. Hardly any gameplay trailers or demos were on stage, the return of Command and Conquer was relegated to a mobile game and the few passionate indie devs on stage were quickly overshadowed by all the heartless rhetoric thrown about by the clueless executives. Time and again, EA has been out of touch with their customers and this year took that to another level.

Rating: 3/10 (Bad)

Microsoft

The Good

• Closing with Cyberpunk 2077

Since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt stormed the industry in 2015, we’ve all been eager to see what Polish developer CD Projekt Red had in store for us next. They surprised us this year with a rush of colour and dystopian science fiction in Cyberpunk 2077. There’s plenty to see throughout the trailer from the world to vehicles with plenty of style to all of it, but what made it a great close to the presser was the cut-off to Spencer’s final speech. While we don’t have any real gameplay yet, the game is clearly well on its way through production and knowing CD Projekt’s commitment to consumer-focused practices they won’t put a foot wrong in that regard.

• The return of Battletoads

The only real surprise Microsoft had to offer of its own accord and not a multiplatform title at E3 2018 was the comeback of a fan favourite; we don’t know much about it, there wasn’t even any real gameplay but the fact that Battletoads is coming back, a long-forgotten product made famous by its gruelling difficulty, is good to hear, not mention that it’s a fully-fledged game and not part of another project like Conker was for Project Spark. It shows Microsoft’s newfound commitment to bringing back old favourites and also tasking Rare with more than just Kinect games. It should be a faithful recreation upon release next year.

• A good collection of world exclusive announcements

For all its lack of true exclusive games, Microsoft sure had a strong line-up of world premieres that made their debut at E3 2018; Just Cause 4, The Division 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Jump Force, Dying Light 2 and Fallout 76 all had strong trailers, but it arguably Devil May Cry 5 that made the biggest impact. After a decade of waiting and a very poorly received reboot from Ninja Theory in 2013, the original hack-and-slash franchise is finally going back to its roots and fans are clearly excited. All of these premieres together definitely added a fair bit of flair to Microsoft’s conference, even if some of the announcements were simply continuations of franchises like Gears of War and Forza.

The Bad

• Little in the way of new and proper exclusives

Microsoft’s exclusive line-up has run into problems for the last three years with cancellations and failures left and right. The company integration of the Xbox brand directly into the PC space hasn’t helped either. The word “exclusive” has become a fixture of the company’s conferences but very rarely is it actually used properly. The only completely new title we saw was Sekiro, a From Software effort based in the lore of Samurai and ancient Japan. Almost everything else was either a new franchise entry or a holdover from PC or another studio acquisition such as We Happy Few from Compulsion Games. Every year Microsoft talks about bringing new experiences to Xbox but they rarely deliver. This needs to change.

• Much talk and little payoff or following through

Phil Spencer is a very passionate head for Xbox and at E3 2018, this was on display all the way through; after having to pick up the Xbox brand, he’s done a great job of communicating the messages right and leading the gaming division of Microsoft. But unfortunately, a lot of his talking points regarding games fell short; they talk about investing in new franchises and yet they still refuse to give studios like 343 or The Coalition the chance to take risks with a new IP. Acquiring new studios is only a starting point towards creating new IPs for Xbox. They throw around the word exclusive so much and yet only three or four titles out of the fifty shown were proper Microsoft exclusives. This hollow rhetoric made it difficult to get excited about upcoming titles from the American company.

• No Halo 6 or any indication of fixing the franchise

While Halo Infinity did open Microsoft’s presser, the next big title in the biggest Xbox franchise of all time was absent. Halo 5 Guardians was a colossal disappointment for fans and casual gamers alike in 2015 and some online commentators have claimed that 343 Industries are in panic mode right now, struggling to find a cohesive vision to close this trilogy of Halo games. Three years on, the time to fix the franchise is now and with Halo 6, 343 could have taken some real steps to reassure the fans and get the excitement going. Regretfully, they chose not to show up, which means we may be waiting a while for them to make an official announcement.

(Correction: Halo Infinite is indeed the sixth main entry in the franchise, but we know very little about the game based on the debut trailer)

The Verdict

With Sea of Thieves disappointing massively and State of Decay 2 falling short, Microsoft needed to pull people back in with a strong collection of new exclusives; did they deliver with their big conference? Only a little bit; Microsoft is trying, but not in the right areas for me. Aside from new studio The Initiative and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice from From Software to rival PS4’s Bloodborne, Microsoft could have had so much more. The world premieres were strong but like previous years there just isn’t anything that will convince me to run out and buy an Xbox One and if this round of exclusives doesn’t work out, they may have to call it quits on this console generation.

Rating: 6/10 (Fair)

Bethesda

The Good

• A general sense of self-aware humour sprinkled throughout

Bethesda has been called out online for quite a few things over the years including buggy release, endlessly re-releasing Skyrim and ending up leaking game releases through retailers. This year at E3 the company decided to have a bit of fun with their reputation, whether it was the sarcastic comments from Pete Hines regarding Walmart Canada or the release of Skyrim on Amazon Echo, none of it felt forced, just a neat way of breaking up the announcements with a bit of self-aware acknowledgement of past mistakes to make sure things didn’t get too serious.

• Announcements of Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI

Bethesda closed out its E3 press conference this year with two big announcements and while they were only trailers, they left audiences with the first seeds of anticipation. First up with Starfield, the first original IP from Bethesda in 25 years and a galaxy spanning RPG with plenty of potential given Bethesda’s pedigree for crafting on a gargantuan scale. Then the big one; Elder Scrolls 6 is on the way, seven years after its predecessor, Skyrim launched and went on to become one of the most popular games of all time. These announcements were just what Bethesda needed to get fans back on board after disappointing with Creation Club (Paid Mods) last year.

• Each and every major franchise getting a slot in the schedule

Bethesda knows its franchises well and this year it was very consistent in giving each and every one of them a good amount of time on stage. Wolfenstein 2 is getting a new side story following William BJ. Blasckowicz’s twin daughters, Doom got a sequel in the form of Eternal, The Elder Scrolls Online continued to expand, Quake Champions is on its way to completion with help from the community and Rage 2 marked itself as far more zany and wacky than the 2010 original. The company has plenty to offer for the foreseeable future and this steady stream of new titles will keep the momentum going into 2019.

The Bad

• A rehash of Fallout Shelter, rather than a Fallout 3 remaster

Fallout 3 is another immensely popular title from Bethesda’s past and it also happens to be my first time getting into the franchise. Ten years on from its release, the time seemed ripe to update the game with modern tech and perhaps even build on the game’s original sombre tone. Sadly it was not to be as Todd Howard ended up talking about Fallout Shelter, a far less impressive mobile game that I stopped playing a while ago. Releasing on Switch and PS4 gives access to more players but the game I feel has reached peak evolutionary potential. Without any more improvements to add to Shelter, it’s better for Bethesda to move on to other projects.

• The Elder Scrolls Blades: Another mobile title…

Sadly, the Elder Scrolls Blades was not the new project I had in mind; the announcement trailer for this mobile game was very underwhelming; on the whole it felt like a watered down version of Elder Scrolls with a few building and social mechanics stacked on for good measure. I’ll give the development team kudos for working to include plenty of modes and a more classical pen-and-paper mode for portrait-oriented screens, but ultimately Blades won’t set the world on fire and should have been relegated to a separate announcement outside of E3.

The Verdict

After last year’s disappointing performance, Bethesda made a decent resurgence for E3 2018. They had plenty to say about every major franchise and while some announcements were more impressive than others, the presser went along at a good pace. Of all the games on show, it’s Fallout 76 which had me split down the middle. It’s nice to have the first multiplayer-based Fallout but in doing so, the series will continue to move away from its deep RPG roots and alienate long-term fans, myself included. We’ll find out how it turns out in November this year.

Rating: 7/10 (Good)

Watch this space for the other half of my E3 2018 Press Conference Mortem. Ubisoft, Sony the PC Gaming Show and Nintendo will be coming up soon!

(Images used for the purposes of review and criticism under fair use)