E3 is like Christmas for gamers, instead of getting what you need, you get what you really, really want
In case any of you are wondering, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly known as E3, is a yearly event in the video game industry.
Developers, publishers, and manufacturers from all over the world showcase titles and products to be sold in the upcoming years.
I’ve been a huge fan of E3 from the very first time I watched it live back in 2013. The first E3 event was held way back in 1995. It has been two decades now and the thrill hasn’t gone down. The whole idea of getting to see and hear information about 100’s of games was exhilarating; add to that the new generation of consoles being revealed, I was stupefied, to say the least, anyway, I digress.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018 (E3 2018) is the 24th Electronic Entertainment Expo, which was held from June 12 to 14 in the Los Angeles Convention Center.
The big dogs when it comes to gaming, EA, Microsoft, Bethesda, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Sony and Nintendo all held their press conference between June 10th to 12th.
Many had amazing games to showcase and some had found more new ways to monetize their games, not going to point fingers *cough* EA *cough*
I am going to focus on Sony for this blog, not because they are my favourite and have always delivered amazing E3 conferences, oh wait, yes actually that’s my only reason.
I mean, technically it is MY blog so, without further adieu let’s just get started.
This year, Sony decided to do something different, they wanted to focus their E3 Keynote mostly dedicated to four upcoming games that we already know about: The Last of Us Part II, Death Stranding, Ghost of Tsushima, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man.
This was something new and hadn’t been seen before in any previous E3, usually you go in with tons of leaks, rumours and ideas about what they might reveal, E3 was always about the ‘wow’ factor, so when Sony announced that they’ll mostly be talking about these 4 games, fans were a bit sceptical.
On one hand, the ‘wow’ factor was sort of brushed off and the anticipation ignored.
On the other hand, fans knew they were in for a treat either way since these 4 are AAA games being developed by the best of the best in the gaming industry, so even if there were no other announcements made, Sony was golden when it came to what they had to offer.
The date and time was set,
June 12th at 6:30 AM IST,
I got up at 6 in the morning just to watch this live.
It felt like the middle of the night since I usually wake up at 9am (My work starts at 10:30, I live 10 minutes from my office, stop judging me damn it!)
The show started exactly at 6:29 am, I had everything set up by then, breakfast (snacks), water (Coke actually) and I worked out a bit (I lied).
Shawn Layden (President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America) walked on to some sort of makeshift, freestanding church which was basically just a huge tent with lights (got to admit, they were pretty)
It was confusing since it looked a bit cramped for all the attendees inside, I mean how were they going to jump and scream when they show the gameplay for Final Fantasy 7? (I’m just kidding, please do not think they showed anything related to FF7)
Turns out it was a theme, for the game they were about to show.
Lights, camera, cry like a little girl.
Note: I’m gonna keep this brief since I’m gonna write another blog focusing solely on the Big 4 since all of them showed amazing trailers.
Gustavo Santaolalla started off the demo by playing his ‘Last of Us’ theme on a six-string banjo. It was beautiful.
Cut to the trailer we see a grown-up Ellie, chilling out at a friendly gathering of sorts with people dancing, a stark contrast to the dark, gritty undertone we’ve all come to know about the world of ‘The Last of Us’.
We’re introduced to 2 new characters (Gina and Jesse), Gina and Ellie make out (I don’t understand what all the fuss about 2 people kissing if people had played the DLC for The Last of Us (Left Behind), they would know that Ellie was always a lesbian) and then a dramatic cut to her puncturing some dudes throat with a dagger (Classic Naughty Dog’s prowess when it comes to cinematic presentation).
We get to see an amazing revamped stealth sequence with amazing details to, well, almost everything. The gameplay was a treat to the eyes, they kept everything good about the gameplay from the first part and iterated upon the weak ones.
All in all, the gameplay just looks smooth and way more immersive than any game I’ve ever seen.
I just want to take my time and point out the almost life-like animation in this trailer, this just goes to show that Naughty Dog has one of the best talents in the industry who are all amazing at what they do.
This game is going to be a lot. Every PlayStation fan knows Naughty Dog is a beast when it comes to cinematic experience through strong gameplay and genuine storytelling so, THE HYPE IS REAL!
After the Demo, the attendees were moved to the actual conference hall. The whole ordeal took about (10-15 minutes) Probably the only part of the conference I hated.
Can’t blame them for trying to induce the “OMG, I’m in the game” experience.
A great idea on paper – except no one watching at home would actually be able to really appreciate that immersion.
The intermission was made up of a roundtable showcasing a couple of games like Black Ops 4, PSVR montage and Destiny 2.
This demo started with some dude on stage playing the shakuhachi (Thank god for Google), which was fantastic and not something I was expecting to see again after Gustavo’s performance.
Ghost of Tsushima, which is being developed by studio Sucker Punch (They made the Infamous series) started off the demo depicting a character making his way through war-torn feudal Japan, with the sorts of sword fighting and sneaking you would expect.
This game looks gorgeous, I have to say. Slo-mo samurai combat looks amazing in this. Can’t wait to play this.
I have to be honest; I really had no idea that Remedy (Studio behind games like Quantum Break and Alan Wake) had something up their sleeve.
Looks like you play a woman with telekinetic powers but also who is really good at shooting guns. It has some trippy time-control combat and looks wonderfully weird.
Three years ago, Capcom said it was remaking Resident Evil 2, but we haven’t seen much of it since then. Today, we not only got a trailer but a release date: January 25, 2019, so VERY soon. It’s coming to the Xbox One and PC in addition to the PS4.
Trover Saves the Universe, made by one of the co-creators of the famous Rick and Morty series, is a weird-as-hell platform adventure coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR.
I don’t have much to say about this game except that it’s just. Weird. Funny, but weird.
Sigh, this game. It was revealed when I first saw E3 2013. The concepts for the game began as early as 2006!
Don’t get me wrong, this game still looks amazing, but its literally the 3rd trailer showed off by Square Enix in E3 2018 alone and for the third time, we got a glimpse at a new Disney world in the game. First, it was Frozen, then Ratatouille, and tonight, it was Pirates of the Caribbean.
Fans are still excited about it though, I don’t know why.
The one and only, Hideo Kojima’s first game post-Konami break up.
The latest trailer for Hideo Kojima’s sci-fi/horror/what the heck is this game, Death Stranding shows the actual gameplay for the first time.
This game man, this game is just so many things at once that it’s hard to grasp at the big picture, what it is all about? The more I see from Kojima, the more intrigued and baffled I am by the game.
It’s in my “Day one buy” list, along with the other big 3.
Team Ninja is back again with a new instalment of their acclaimed game Nioh (whoa, that sounded like a rap bar). If you’ve played and loved Nioh, I’m pretty sure you were balls to walls when they announced this.
What’s the point of these press conferences? To make us want to play a certain video game? If so, mission accomplished.
The demo showed spidey fighting off 5 of his most dangerous enemies (that’s what Yuri says in the game, so I’m just gonna go with it and so should you) in an amazing action sequence with impressive open world set-pieces and amazing, fluid gameplay.
I mean, WHO DOESN’T WANT TO PLAY AS SPIDERMAN?
In conclusion, Sony really did mostly focus on the big 4 games, with a couple of surprises like Control, RE2, and Nioh 2.
This year’s Press conference might’ve been Sony’s weakest one since 2013, only because the bar was already set very high.