Ah, what a wonderful time of year! When everyone is sweating to their heart‘s content the whole gaming industry gets together each year to share the sweat… and to announce new games. It‘s kind of fitting!
A bunch of sweaty gaming nerds together in a hot room. Sweating…
What can I say? It‘s hot right now and everything in my brain just screams heat!
What better way to distract myself from sweating than with a lot of new games I can probably never afford nor find the time to play!
This is just a quick fire thoughts session of the first day of E3 Conferences. Nothing elaborate, just a few thoughts. Well, that‘s not entirely true, it‘s actually the first day and day zero, or whatever we‘re supposed to call EA Play.
I hope you enjoy reading about my opinion as much as I love writing it down!
EA:
This press conference was garbage! Even the saving grace, the big thing, Anthem, doesn‘t really interest me. I‘m not a shooter person and I‘m sorry, but it‘s just Destiny developed by Bioware. And I am one hundred percent certain that this is what EA is banking on, but it‘s gonna backfire! They truly believe, I‘m sure, that people are gonna look at Anthem and say: „Wow, that‘s just like Destiny, but it‘s developed by Bioware! That‘s awesome!“
When in reality people will likely say this: „Why can‘t Bioware just make good RPGs again? That‘s what I want, not this!“
All of the other announcements were just so god damn EA! Unravel 2 looked meh and the Sea of Solitude reveal got overshadowed by atrocious pronunciation. As a German I sincerely apologize and I can attest to the fact that not every German is so incapable of talking in English as that woman was. I‘m so sorry for your ears!
And the sports games? I just don‘t care.
Yeah, this was a bad, bad conference!
Microsoft:
Now this is more like it! First of all I gotta say that I truly think Phil Spencer is the nicest dude in corporate gaming! Sorry Gabe, you can come off like a creep sometimes and Todd, well, you‘re just basically my dad, aren‘t you?
Halo, Gears of War, Forza, all of Microsoft‘s heavy hitters were here! Yes! Even Crackdown yet again! All of them have new titles in development and what we saw looked really nice.
But I want to focus on three games in particular that had me silently scream at my screen! I had to be silent, cause it was late at night in Germany and people were sleeping. If it hadn‘t been night though, I would have gone absolutely freaking ballistic!
Okay, are you ready?
There‘s a new FromSoftware game called Sekiro which is gonna be set in ancient Japan and… you had me at ancient Japan!
This just looks like a dream come true for me! I might just have to try a Soul‘s like game after all.
The second insane announcement was a new Battletoads game coming in 2019!!!
And It‘s even gonna be developed by the OG developers Rare! They‘re back, Baby! I can‘t friggin wait! Although I‘ve never beaten the original games (They‘re hard as nails) I just love this franchise to bits and never in a million years would I have thought that I‘d get another game in the near future!
Just great!
And then there was the part where I went absolutely nuts! The part where I thought I was dreaming! So, we see Naruto and… then there‘s Freezer, and Son Goku and Luffy are joining in as well and oh my god that was Light from Death Note at the end, wasn‘t it?! Holy crap! Gimme! Now! Take all my money!
If you‘ve got no idea what I just talked about, then congratulations, you escaped the weeaboo bug.
But if you‘re like me and love Anime/Manga, then Jump Force probably did something unspeakable to your brain as well. It just burned all of my Synapses so that I was unable to think straight for a minute.
Yeah, this conference was just nuts!
And there‘s still a lot of cool shit I don‘t wanna get over right now! Like the Tales of Vesperia Remake or… or.. Devil May Cry 5! Yeah! That‘s happening!
Or a new pro skating game called… called…. I forgot what it‘s called cause there were just so many announcements! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
And just when Phil announces that it‘s over and good night and stuff the stream cuts out and it looks as if it‘s getting hacked… what? Another Trailer, right? An eerie narration comes in and says “In 2077“ and then I knew! Cyberpunk 2077! The new CD Project Red game! To end with this was just…it was the finishing touch, the fatal blow, double kill, money shot, good night, I‘m cooked aaaaaand – done!
This conference was exhausting in a good way!
Bethesda:
Huh? Huh? Huh! Huh. I think I haven‘t said huh enough yet: Huh!
This was…I don‘t know? Have you ever had the type of experience where you are just kind of floating over the whole situation, unable to react and when it‘s over you just think to yourself: Well, this was something!
Cause, that‘s exactly what this was like for me.
Like I just kissed my crush from High-school and she didn‘t slap me!
But I‘m still processing it all. It‘s still too fresh for me to say if it‘s actually good, or bad, or anything…
First of all, the presentation itself was top notch! Andrew W.K. had a one song concert in honor of Rage 2, Pete Hines poked fun at the Rage 2 leaks and they even went as far as to have a mock trailer showcasing all of the imaginary devices that Skyrim will get released on next!
This fall, coming to a refrigerator near you!
So, it started out gently enough, you‘re leaning in for the kiss. Rage 2. There‘s some extended Elder Scrolls Universe announcements when you press your lips against hers.
Doom Eternal just let you embrace her but then the doubt sets in with Prey, Quake and Wolfenstein announcements that were just more of those games. Does she really like you? But then Godd Howard comes out and shows you Fallout 76 and now you feel it! She‘s kissing you back! And, wait? That‘s tongue! Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 also get a short tease for sometime, probably 2045 or something.
Breathe.
Just… breathe!
Yeah, this was mouthwatering stuff and the idea of an online Fallout is… different! That‘s the part that I can‘t decide on, whether I am excited about it or worried. They addressed a lot of their past mistakes.
Todd said that the internet says their games can be buggy and sometimes not everything just works and therefore they will have a Beta test and… the self awareness level is so high here it‘s almost zero again!
Oh, and we‘ll get a new mobile Elder Scrolls game which looks bonkers and Fallout Shelter is already downloaded and ready to play on my Switch!
But I‘m just so confused about Fallout 76. Am I excited for it? Was this a good kiss? Did she like it? Heck, did I like it?
I guess time will tell!