Sony
The good
- · The Last Guardian’s return
To kick off their presser this year, Sony decisively silenced
all who believed The Last Guardian had been cancelled with a full-blown
gameplay video. The video showed the various ways the boy interacts with the
Griffin, as well as some light puzzle gameplay. After numerous rumours and
speculation, some began to doubt that Team Ico’s next project would ever be
released; it had been six long years since the game was initially announced
after all. But Sony put those doubts to rest from the offset and it was a
brilliant way to begin their press conference, grabbing our attention straight
away, particularly the fanbase of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus who have
waited years for this announcement to arrive. The excitement generated by the
announcement is sure to hold up until 2016; my only concern is how the game
itself will hold up. Compared with all the other AAA games at E3 this year, The
Last Guardian seems to be the most simplistic which may not hold casual players
over considering the massive gap between it and its predecessors.
- · Final Fantasy 7 HD… At long last!
In yet another surprising moment from Sony’s presser, Final
Fantasy 7 HD was announced. Ever since the PS3 tech demo at E3 2005, fans of
the venerable game have been clamouring for a remake; the infamous incident at
the PlayStation experience event last year didn’t help matters, damaging Square
Enix’s reputation in the eyes of fans. At E3 2015 the remake was finally
confirmed and massive cheers erupted from the crowd. The original Final Fantasy
7 on the PlayStation 1 is one of the most beloved and acclaimed RPGs ever made
and it also touched players in a way that few games could back then. My guess
is that either Square Enix caved after the anger they received last year, or
Sony persuaded them to make the title in order to satisfy the fans. Whatever
the case it’s great to see that the fans will at long last get what they have
been waiting almost twenty years for.
- · Shenmue 3 kickstarter
Sony didn’t stop at Final Fantasy 7 HD; instead they
continued to unleash an unstoppable burst of utter excitement with the announcement
of Shenmue 3 on Kickstarter. Shenmue, like Final Fantasy 7 is an incredibly
popular title and for years fans have wanted the story of Ryo Hazuki to be
concluded with Shenmue 3. Another dream came true this year with Sony’s
announcement, which saw series creator Yu Suzuki come on stage and counted down
the kickstarter campaign. From here the website itself was quite literally
broken as legions of fans poured in their funds, raising one million dollars in
just 102 minutes. The power of Shenmue and the announcement as a whole simply
cannot be understated; it was another epic moment which made Sony’s conference
so memorable this year.
The bad
- · No mention or talk of PlayStation Vita
Unlike the Kinect (which I’ve always felt was a massive
rip-off), Sony’s PlayStation Vita had all kinds of promise when it was first
unveiled in 2011 and ever since then, all it has done is fall further and
further in the eyes of both consumers and Sony themselves. The promise of
full-on AAA games on a handheld was never realised no thanks to the failures of
Assassin’s Creed: Liberation and Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified. Nowadays
the device is barely acknowledged, making it feel like a wasted investment; a
huge shame given the potential it initially had.
- · Very few titles for the rest of 2015
Where Microsoft laid a strong claim to the best exclusive
blockbusters for the rest of 2015, Sony had the complete opposite; now that
Bloodborne and The Order: 1886 have been released to varying degrees of
success, what is there to look forward to from PlayStation 4 in terms of
exclusives for the rest of 2015? Not a whole lot besides Until Dawn and the
Japanese RPG Persona 5, which doesn’t exactly have a wide appeal. The waiting
game is nothing new with Sony; it took around two years for the first heavy
hitters to arrive on PS3 and fans have been asked to wait several times before.
Instead of rolling out more titles for 2015, Sony is instead snapping up all
the exclusive deals it can find to make their system seem as attractive as
possible for multi-platform titles. More on that further down.
- · A rather basic showing for Project Morpheus
With Oculus and Valve partnering with Microsoft for the use
and distribution of their virtual reality headsets, Sony’s own effort; Project
Morpheus was expected to have a fairly sizeable presence this year in order to
counter its main competitors. Unfortunately this was not to be as Sony showed
off basic concepts, rather than proper demos and functionality for the headset.
Compared to what Microsoft offered, the short talk on Project Morpheus felt
quite laughable by comparison. If Project Morpheus is going to take a firm
position in the rising VR market, they’re going to have to show and present a
lot more to instil confidence that the headset is keeping up with its biggest
competitors.
- · Exclusive content: Not really a win on Sony’s part
Sony’s conference was absolutely loaded with exclusive
content this year; it’s no exaggeration that literally every single
multiplatform game had some sort of exclusive deal at the end of it. This
included the new Hitman game, Batman: Arkham Knight, Street Figher 5, the Taken
King expansion for Destiny, Disney Infinity, and Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate.
Even Call of Duty, a franchise long associated with Microsoft has now swapped
their allegiance to Sony with Black Ops 3. While this move may impress
stakeholders, for the gaming community it’s a pretty disdainful move to take.
Cutting content off from the other platforms to make the PlayStation 4 version
look better really doesn’t have any point to it; it is real exclusives, not
exclusive content which should be used to move units and all this sugar coating
won’t do Sony any real favours. All it does is fuel the fires of fanboyism and
give off an anti-consumer vibe which Sony really doesn’t want to be doing after
gaining a massive lead in sales.
Final Score
Going into E3 this year, I thought that Sony’s presser would
be quite bare-bones; that they would simply shrug their shoulders whilst
proclaiming their lack of AAA exclusives for the rest of the year. While the
latter is mostly true, the corporation did anything but shrug their shoulders
and refused to let the competition slip in front of them. Sony proved once
again this year that it’s still the king of the high profile reveals and the
most exciting games that fans have been waiting years for. The cheers that went
up on the announcements of Shenmue 3 and Final Fantasy 7 HD were certainly the
biggest of the show and that’s what Sony has always had a knack for; building
the strongest anticipation while keeping their low points disguised. For now
the hype train Sony has generated since day one with the PlayStation 4 will
have to suffice, until their big titles arrive in 2016 but for now, Sony has
another solid press conference under their belt.
7/10 (Good)
Nintendo
The good
- · The return of Starfox
The Starfox series has awaited a full resurgence for many
years. The last major console release was Starfox Assault on the Gamecube ten
years ago. Since then we’ve seen a couple of handheld titles and a re-release
of Starfox 64 on the 3DS but never a fully-fledged sequel on a new console.
Having skipped the Nintendo Wii, the series is making its return with Starfox
Zero and the trailer shown at Nintendo’s event looked very promising. Featuring
both air and ground combat with the use of the Wii U gamepad, Starfox Zero
looks set to be a welcome return for a franchise on hiatus for far too long.
- · Xenoblade Chronicles X and Super Mario Maker
As bare-bones as Nintendo’s event seemed it was satisfying to
see both Xenoblade Chronicles X and Mario Maker make appearances. Both titles
will be the biggest heavy-hitters the Wii U has to offer this year and they
both made impressions in their own ways. Xenoblade for its massive ambition as
a sequel and Mario Maker for the sheer potential it contains in allowing fans
to create their own side-scrolling levels for the first time. Mario Maker in
particular looks very extensive with multiple art styles, items and components
to choose from. Both titles are sure to maintain the momentum the Wii U has at
the moment when they release later this year.
The bad
- · Too much focus on the 3DS
For the amount of success the Wii U had last year, Nintendo
seemed quite reluctant to talk about their console at their event, choosing
instead to focus more on 3DS titles. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of
this focus was Metroid Federation Force; fans have been waiting five years for
a new game in the series and this new 3DS title was not what they were
expecting. Federation Force has no Samus Aran, and no exploration that the
series is known for as well as a pretty lackluster graphical style. The reception was
so bad that a change.org petition was created to cancel the game’s development,
currently standing at over twenty thousand signatures. The announcement caused
a pretty sizeable backlash and this has caused Nintendo to reiterate that Samus
will make an appearance and that the game will feature a proper single-player
campaign. Nintendo fans have been more vocal about Metroid: Federation Force
than any other title made by the company, something which may have been fuelled
by the polarising Metroid: Other M in 2010. It does also raise the question as
to whether a petition is too radical a response or whether the consumer should
simply refuse to buy the game and let it suffer poor sales, thus sending a
message to Nintendo as to what the fans really want.
Final Score
The biggest problem with Nintendo’s event this year was its
lack of spark or promising titles; after the Wii U made such a strong comeback
in the console market last year, fans were eagerly awaiting what Nintendo was
doing next to keep the system in line with its competitors. Unfortunately the
show felt by the numbers to me; aside from Mario Maker and Xenoblade Chronicles
X, there really wasn’t anything worth sticking around for. There could have
been more details on the highly anticipated Zelda title for the Wii U or maybe
even a brand new 3D Mario title which would serve as a successor to the Super
Mario Galaxy games. Instead Nintendo saw fit to focus more on the 3DS whilst
also withholding details on its next system, the NX which would have been the
more reasonable option to take.
5/10 (Average)
Square Enix
The good
- · New details on Kingdom Hearts 3
The highly anticipated Kingdom Hearts 3 has been relatively
quiet since its reveal two years ago at Sony’s E3 conference. Legions of fans
have been awaiting the first snippets of gameplay and Square Enix delivered
just that at their conference this year. The flashy combat saw protagonist Sora
teaming up with Disney’s Donald and Goofy to take on several new types of
enemies while traversing a lush green environment. The game looks pretty good
so far with a substantial visual upgrade. Chances are we may see news about a
release date soon with development having gone on for two years.
- · Just Cause 3
Some might say that Just Cause has come closer than any other
open world franchise to rivalling the Grand Theft Auto series in terms of sheer
popularity. It drops both realism and story in favour of pure, unadulterated
fun in a massive sandbox. The gameplay has always been explosive, and
over-the-top with a prime emphasis on causing as much chaos as possible. That’s
exactly what Just Cause 3 sets out to do and the newest trailer shown off at E3
this year has exactly what fans are expecting. Ideally the game needs to
improve on the flaws of the second, which included the shooting mechanics and
slightly overzealous physics system. The other danger with Just Cause 3 is that
it may end up feeling like Just Cause 2.5 and won’t take many risks with the
formula. There’s also no multiplayer which is a shame, given how popular the
Just Cause 2 multiplayer mod has become.
The bad
- · An overall dryness to the whole event
If one company can be too overzealous in its efforts to
engage the audience, then another can be too dull and dry. Square Enix’s
presentation could have been better; it often felt as if they were reading off
a script and weren’t that engaged with the audience. It felt a little too
formal for my taste too, as they had a rather routine applause at the end. To
excite your fans, it not only takes strong showings and detailed gameplay
demos, but passionate developers as well. It’s why the brief talk of Unravel
made EA’s conference a little more bearable. If Square Enix is to do another
conference next year, it needs to keep this in mind and that way it will be
that much more engaging.
Final Score
Square Enix’s E3 debut was fairly competent but nothing
special. Games like Kingdom Hearts 3 and Just Cause 3 did excite, but most of
the other announcements ranged from average to fairly dull. SE suffered from
the problem Ubisoft had in previous years in that the footage they showed was
what we had already seen because it had been broadcasted at an earlier
conference
6/10 (Fair)
PC Gaming
Show
The good
- · Extensive talk on technical specs
One of the biggest components of gaming on PC is the
technical specifications. People love to build the most powerful rigs and with
this come games that look absolutely stunning with the boosted hardware. It was
satisfying to see that the PC gaming show didn’t gloss over this aspect, homing
in on specific details of graphics and development tools that enrich the PC
experience. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Killing Floor 2 were the biggest
highlights, showing a variety of upgrades from screen space reflection to
bloody entrails physics. Above all else, the PC gaming show knew its audience well
and tailored it to fit their specific interests.
- · Games of many types and genres
Of all the conferences at E3 this year, the PC gaming show
had the strongest variety of titles to show. We saw all kinds of games
including new projects, updates on existing titles such as Guild Wars 2 and
Killing Floor, atmospheric titles such as Soma, new expansions for Heroes of
the Storm and Pillars of Eternity and heavy hitting titles including Gigantic
and No Man’s Sky. Having a diverse selection of titles gave the PC gaming show
a strong impact that kept the audience guessing despite the lack of massive
announcements.
The bad
- · A slightly bloated running time
At two hours and thirty minutes, the PC gaming show was the
longest of all the press conferences at E3 this year. The in-depth discussions
did fill in most of the time quite well and succeeded at putting out information
to both the audience and PC gamers everywhere but the show did drag towards the
end and my attention started to wane a fair bit. As a result, the likes of No
Man’s Sky and other titles later in the show did have less of an impact simply
because people were straining to pay attention. If they were to streamline some
of the Q&A sessions and trim down the commentary slightly next year then it
may be able to maintain interest more effectively.
- · Nothing from Valve :(
With so many dreams being realised and so many anticipated
titles finally on the way, there seems to be only one that we still know
nothing about; you know what it is, Half Life 3. There could not have been a riper
time for Valve to make their return to game development; they haven’t made a
game since the release of DOTA 2 in 2013 and the PC gaming show seemed to be
the perfect spot to make a big announcement. Unfortunately Valve remains as
frustratingly tight-lipped as ever on both their games and their efforts into
the PC and VR hardware sectors. Waiting over seven years for a game that we
know nothing about has been a slow and arduous process for the fans; one of the
audience members even called out for Half Life 3 during the presentation. For now,
the wait will continue to drag on not just for the elusive entry in the Half
Life series but also Valve’s next move as a whole.
Final Score
The debut of the PC gaming show was a relatively good effort.
It felt much more down-to-earth than the other conferences with the structure
of a talk-show, less marketing buzzwords and more of an easy-going mood. This
is evidenced by Phil Spencer’s frank discussion that homed in on the fact and
the laidback style of presenter Sean “Day9” Plott. It was also really
refreshing to see a proper focus on PC and the more technical side of gaming
specifications and tools that developers use to make titles on the platform.
Hopefully the show will make a return to E3 next year.
7/10 (Good)
And that wraps up part 1 of my E3 2015 Post-Mortem; for the
next part I’ll be looking at the VR tech present at the show.
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