So it’s Wednesday, the dust has settled and we can finally look back at all of the E3 press conferences. That’s right, rather than simply looking at a single game for this week’s WeView, we’re asking you to pick out your favourite bits from the E3 conferences over the last few days.
There’s a lot to pick from here, so I’ll try and give you an overview. To begin with we have to go all the way back to the early hours of Monday morning, UK time, and Bethesda’s conference, where they showed off some pretty huge games for what seemed like a relatively small conference. I’m sure plenty of you will be excited by Doom or Dishonored 2, while Fallout 4 has certainly stuck with with many of TSA’s writers as one of their favourites.
Next up was Microsoft, and their announcement of backwards compatibility for Xbox 360 games seemed to get a lot of love from the internet. Then of course there was a trailer for Halo 5 and the unveiling of Gears of War 4. Or was it Rare’s Sea of Thieves or the adorable Recore that really caught your attention?
EA had a fair bit to show too – outside of story time with Pele – particularly with Mass Effect: Andromeda kicking off their conference. Star Wars: The Old Republic and Star Wars: Battlefront boosted the sci-fi levels of their show even higher, while they brought us back down to earth with a look at the newly announced Need for Speed. For me, however, it was the cute Unravel that really stole my heart, while Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst does look very interesting.
We then moved onto Ubisoft, who got things going with the announcement of South Park: The Fractured But Whole, before also showing us a whole heap of goodies in the form of The Division, Rainbow Six: Siege, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and Anno 2205, as well as announcing For Honor and the frankly amazing looking Ghost Recon: Wildlands. Ghost Recon is actually one of my picks for the best thing shown overall, and the new twist on the series looks brilliant.
Then we had the conference that was full of surprises from Sony. From The Last Guardian, to the Final Fantasy VII remake and Shenmue 3 they left us reaching for our jaws, while updating us on titles like No Man’s Sky and Uncharted 4 was always going to draw people in. However, it was Guerrilla’s new game, Horizon Zero Dawn, that really seemed to grab hold of the guys here at TSA, with many citing it as one of their favourite reveals of the night. To be honest, I’m completely on their side; it looked absolutely incredible. Oh, and Aran was a big fan of Uncharted 4 freezing, apparently.
Moving onto Tuesday’s shows, it was Nintendo’s puppets that grabbed hold of TSA’s staff, making us laugh from the beginning of Nintendo’s pre-recorded offering. Starfox Zero is bound to appeal to many, as is Xenoblade Chronicles, and even their Amiibo tie-in to Skylanders looked interesting, even if it’s not going to be for everyone.
Then, of course, we had Square Enix, which did feel a bit lacklustre. Even so, they still showed off Just Cause 3, which looked absolutely incredible, and gave us more details on the new Hitman game, which sounds like it might have some interesting gameplay systems at work. However, it’s Kingdom Hearts III that’s the biggest hitter here, given that the Final Fantasy VII remake was already announced during Sony’s show.
So that’s a quick overview of what we’ve seen during the press events of the last few days, but what was it that really grabbed your attention? Maybe there was something that felt like a particularly big failing to you, or perhaps there was a single moment that made you jump for joy? Just drop us a comment below and tell us what you thought of this year’s publisher shows.
Tomhlord
As a singular announcement, Microsoft snatched it. However as a press conference to watch, Sony’s was pure theatre. 3 games the internet has wanted for a long time were all there, scarcely believable, plus new IP from established SCE teams. The atmosphere looked incredible. Well done.
JustTaylorNow
Both parties was good, I would say MS edged a win (not cause of BC, why buy a new gem to play old gen) but the fact that MS has far more AAA exclusives coming out this year, I dusted my xbone & it’s ready to be played. I’m not really convinced with the holo thing, remember the kinect, it was made out to be what it’s not when they announced it.
Sony did what MS did during the announcement of new gen, talk too much about TV no one wants to hear that, they didn’t even talk about Morpheus at all & from the little games they are announcing for it, it’s not appealing at the moment for day one buy, already feels like a gimmick. Their first party games no show besides what we been seeing fit the last 2 E3, no man sky, uncharted, come on already. It felt more of a third party moment for Sony E3.
Nintendo wow what a bore fest, I stopped watching after Firefox really!!
Bethesda won developer E3, they delivered for us
Starman
Doom, Tomb Raider & the backward compatible were my highlights, though I haven’t caught up & seen everything I want to yet.
bunimomike
Funny how different we all are.
Doom looked awful. Just awful. Graphically it was decent but the game had aged so, so much and was compounded by how long the demo went on for.
Tomb Raider (which I’ll play on the PC) was a bit naff in the trailer but when it started showing everything after the trailer it looked great again. Also, what’s the score with making Lara look like Ellie (from The Last of Us) but a few years older? She had the face of a mid-teen in the trailer. REALLY weird choice. :-\
The backwards compatibility announcement was a great moment, however. Good on Microsoft for having options to play last-gen’s games.
Starman
I am a fan of the old style fps games so that explains me liking Doom.
It was nice to see actual gameplay from Tomb raider, didn’t see the Ellie resemblance myself, but I’ve only seen her on the game cover as I’ve never played TloU!
bunimomike
It was really, REALLY weird, fella. Very strange. :-\
Your Doom comment now makes total sense. Hope it’s a belter for you. :-)
Lieutenant Fatman
The way Sony revealed FF7 being remade is one of the most exciting E3 moments ever, so awesome. Best moment of an already great conference that kept fans engaged and entertained.
Mickey2010
Microsoft-backward compatibility is not something I am that interesting in as I own my 360 still so was not that fussed they had a brilliant conference in terms of AAA games announced a lot of exclusive games for there system Sea Of Theives the only must have for me as I have grown tired of Halo And Gears.
Sony-had a good show TLG re-announced we all knew was coming but the Shenmue 3 and Horizon blew me away it’s great that Sonys first party studios are using more women as the main characters in there games. Uncharted 4 looked beautiful but I have come to expect that from Naughty Dog!.Call Of Duty was a huge moment for Sony not for me but to acquire the rights to the map packs ahead of Microsoft is huge for Sony.
Some great games shown was a good e3 nieR at SE was a nice surprise
double-o-dave
3 highlights for me – 2 expected and 1 surprise…
New Uncharted and Star Wars gameplay, then the surprise Horizon Zero Dawn reveal.
Not sure what to think of The Last Guardian, its still good looking, but at the same time, it pretty much looks exactly the same as it did on its first reveal several years ago. The animation on the catbirddoggy beast looked good but I get the feeling the overall gameplay may be a bit dated now.
Tomb Raider looked reasonably promising but who knows if we’ll ever see it on the PS4. Fortunately I’m quite content with the upcoming Uncharted Remasters followed by Uncharted 4 which looks epic!
Mirrors Edge caught my attention, but unfortunately I couldn’t get to grips with the first person game mechanics of the first one, so I’ll probably end up avoiding it.
bunimomike
I’ve noticed loads of comments and journalists mentioning the graphics of The Last Guardian.
I keep telling myself “but you can see what happened, right?” but that’s just me. If you look at the staggering detail on Trico (cat-bird thingie) the poor PS3 didn’t have a change in hell of being like that in real-time. The original trailer was obviously a pre-render – a vertical slice – of how the game will look and they overestimated by a staggering amount. I can’t help but think Ueda didn’t want his vision f****d about with so decided to start again on the PS4 as the PS3 simply wasn’t going to cut it.
Saying that, if you look at Ico… it’s just an adventure-puzzler. Nothing revolutionary in any of it. However, the emphasis was on the world, the relationship and what was happening as you progressed. Emotional investment was everything. I think this will be the same. The game-play will be necessary and enjoyable but the journey will be where the heart lies.
I hope, at least! :-)
double-o-dave
Agreed, I was thinking along the same lines.
One thing I did notice was the kids voice was very repetitive when shouting Trico, and that was from just a short demo. Hopefully they’ll add quite a few variations of him shouting the same phrase or it may get very annoying, very quickly.
Another thing which worries me is how Trico came to be… I keep picturing a cat having its wicked way with a pigeon. Although that doesn’t explain the sheer size of the beast. Thats unless the whole place is staged in Model Village just down the road from me.
bunimomike
The only thing I can offer with him shouting is that Ico suffered with the same thing but listening to someone shout and being the person who shouts makes a big ol’ difference. I never tired of Ico calling out to Princess Yorda… thankfully. Would’ve driven me potty otherwise! :D
bunimomike
You’re spot on, though. A few extra ways of calling for him would be nice.
TSBonyman
Yes, they’ve revealed that the PS3 demo was a specced up version – the game was actually running at a much lower framerate on PS3 so it made sense to switch to PS4.
Also, from what i could gather, the boy will use different voice commands depending what he wants Trico to do.
kjkg
I think Sony blew it out the water, I’m actually a little surprised so many so far have said otherwise.
FF7, TLG and Shenmue are all stuff of legend. When have 3 games so sought-after been revealed by one company, let alone one conference?
Throw on top of that Uncharted which is always a crowd pleaser.
FF7 remade was literally the greatest thing about it for me but damn, does Unravel not look amazing. Hope it can keep that charm up the whole way through though.
gazzagb
Although I haven’t watched Microsofts conference yet, I think Ubisofts was the strongest. They had a solid line up of titles, with a couple of surprises too.
EAs was pretty decent too, bar the lengthy aand pointless chat with Pele.
Sony’s was pretty disappointing I found, with very few true surprises and nothing that really grabbed me. Everything was leaked or had been pre announced, and it just felt a let down.
Firewatch was probably the best thing from them, but compare that to rainbow ssix, the division and battlefront, I hoped for more.
gazzagb
E3 as a whole overall was disappointing too, I should add. Last year’s E3 made it look like this would be a great expo, but it never came through. There were still too many trailers and videos rather than live game play for already announced games. I’d have also liked a few more surprises, the previous week was full of leaks unfortunately.
beeje13
All Monday’s conferences were good, I’d say EA the weakest because of the lack of new game announcements.
Xbox was great and I didn’t watch the PS conference but some good reveals. Interested in the last guardian now I’ve seen gameplay, never played ico, sotc.
Amphlett
A few massively high points for me –
Star Wars: Battlefront. The gameplay videos, both co-op and multiplayer, had me experiencing a ‘joygasm’ and squealing like a little girl (I’m a 43 old male). The sound of the tie Fighters screaming across the landscape was so exciting. I am looking to take a week off work in November for this!
The Last Guardian and Final Fnatsy 7 remakes. Ahhhhhhhhhh, I am so very excited.
Guerilla’s new IP, Horizon Zero Dawn, looks so interesting. With their trademark level of graphical and gameplay quality I will be waiting for this to drop through my letterbox.
My low point was the rather disappointing presentation from Media Molecule of their new IP. It looked more like a painting experience with a little user created animation thrown in than a game. It also appeared to require input from the DS4’s lightbar which means the requirement for a PS4 camera and after wasting money on previously under utilized PS peripherals I won’t be buying a camera just for this ‘game’.
TSBonyman
I think Dreams doesn’t require the camera – it works like when typing with the DS4 motion controls. Definitely doesn’t look like a game though, more about creating and sharing little movies/machinima with others from what i can make out – something i’m quite interested in but it won’t appeal to everyone.