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.
cam_manutd
This will probably go down as the best E3. I thought 2013 delivered the single best moment in an E3 with Sony announcements regarding DRM etc.
But Final Fantasy 7, XB1 BC, Shenmue 3, TLG, Nier made by bloomin Platinum?! It was a stupendous couple of days.
In terms of who won I am slightly on the fence. MS delivering BC is a great win for Xbox gamers but both Halo and Tomb Raider didn’t look too inspiring. Halo looked very by the numbers and Tomb Raider reminded me much of Uncharted 2 tundra levels though admittedly prettier.
Early access is a dangerous notion being introduced of playing potentially buggy games. Hololens was cool also so the potential is there though MS have burned people before with the Kinect.
Sony made three huge announcements-FF7, TLG and Shenmue 3. FF7 was the best announcement of the show that there can be no doubt. But the lack of something coming in time for Xmas concerns me. Last year we had Driveclub and LBP3-both unfairly viewed by critics (generally not TSA ;) ).
This year we have Uncharted trilogy which I am excited for again and…that’s about it. Until Dawn is now an August release. PS Now needed to be mentioned but there was nothing and we saw little of Morpheus.
Still, Sony do that thing where they keep you invested long term and they generally have a sound long term strategy. So with multiple games in the future, I’m still excited by what the PS4 can provide.
However as and now, if I was an Xbox gamer I would be very happy. So Xbox wins imo.
So this year:
MGS 5
Fallout 4
Uncharted Trilogy
Until Dawn
Halo 5
Rise Of The Tomb Raider
Gears Ultimate Ed
Rainbow 6
And many more. At the end of the day-gamers win.
TSBonyman
Dishonored 2, Fallout 4, New Mass Effect, Unravel, Just Cause 3, Rise of Lara, The Last Guardian, No Man’s Sky, Guerilla’s Horizon, Mm’s Dreams and Uncharted 4, phew.. i think that’s most of my personal highlights. Looks like i won E3!
Microsoft’s b/c announcement was their biggest moment, AR Minecraft got a good reception, Tomb raider looked great, especially the tombs but the only other game which caught my eye was Encore – plenty for Halo/Gears fans though.
I guess Sony showed the most content that i was interested in – but i wasn’t really swayed by their two other huge reveals of Shenmue 3 and FF7 remake.
TSBonyman
*Recore i meant – not Encore.
mrfodder
I loved the Bethesda conference, Doom looked amazing and the Snapmap was brilliant. Dishonored 2 looks good and Fallout 4 is huge and a day one purchase.
I only saw half the Microsoft conference, but what I saw was good. The hololens looked interesting, but it was just AR on the Vita with a lot more power. Very interested in Rise of the Tomb Raider (when it makes it to PS4). It was more striking that Uncharted, but I think that is because it was snippets as opposed to a big long sequence.
EA was a bit boring as the sports game look the same year after year, but Battlefront had me grinning.
Ubisoft had a good selection and Ghost Recon was a standout looking like fantastic gameplay.
Sony had loads from beginning to end. Uncharted and Horizon look sweet and they already have me sold on Batman.
Square Enix was a bit weird, but had a good mix between their RPG routes and new ideas for Hitman.
Transitioning Peasant
Truthfully, I wasn’t really blown away by E3 2013 or 2014, but I’ve really enjoyed watching the conferences this year.
Both Microsoft and Sony had some great moments, Ubisoft look to be back on form and even EA had a “wow” moment thanks to Star Wars Battlefront.
Bethesda stole the show for me however. Lots of DOOM/Fallout4 footage and both games look great.
Just a shame about Nintendo. Its pretty obvious they are winding down the Wii-U and starting to think about their next system.
Tuffcub
Final Fantasy VII remake. Bought the original on a whim when I was ill, played it non stop till the end.
Apart from that, the Uncharted 4 demo was just astounding from a technical point of view. Just amazing how much that game is shifting about and the levels of destruction, and the animations. Little things like the bloke being punched through the crate for example. Brilliant.
bunimomike
Agreed, fella. Naughty Dog continue to be dishing out master-classes in how to animate, model, create dialogue, action, etc..
Bloody awesome.
Avenger
The E3 that showed promise for this generation in terms of new and refreshing games, although most of that impression came from MS and the publishers, rather than Sony who seem to be caught between the distant past and 2017. Even with TLG and FFVII, PS4 still seems lacklustre, with no GT7 or exclusive shooter to be seen. Overall the X1 showed a greater level of sustainability, with lots of new stuff on the way and on a more consistent basis. Forza, Halo and the Rare retro pack add to a wealth of current games, and future titles for 2016.
Avenger
Suppose to be a separate comment, not a reply.
hazelam
buy it.
what? ^_^
the main highlight for me was, obviously, Fallout 4, looks like it’d be great if it was just another Fallout, but all the new stuff they’ve added, fantastic, and mod support, hopefully coming to PS4.
but the game is due this year, which is fantastic news, if they can stick the date and not have any unexpected delays.
then there’s the FFVII remake, great news, but possibly too early to get really excited as it might be years before the game actually gets released.
Guerilla Games new title looks fantastic.
the graphics look great and the world looks amazing.
the creature design is also pretty damn cool, with what looks like a whole ecosystem of machine animals.
i can’t wait to see more of that one.
then there’s Mass Effect, but that short trailer didn’t really reveal much.
i’ll wait to see more before getting too hyped.
of course Xenoblade Chronicles x looks great, but they didn’t really reveal anything new other than the release date.
the announcements about Shenmue 3 and the new Nier game were certainly unexpected, but far from unwelcome.
there’s still No Man’s Sky, still looks great, but still, no release date yet.
and that’s about the only thing i really need to know about the game at this point, when i can buy it.
and yeah, almost forgot, The Last Guardian looks to be finally coming out next year.
i love the way they’ve given the creature character, the way he/she nuzzles up to the kid and when he tells it to jump somewhere but it’s a little scared, it wants to jump, but it’s a little wary.
it’s adorable, huge but adorable.
well, that’s my take on E3.
coruscant
Fallout blew everything else away for me. Sony had very little for me. Props to Microsoft on backwards compatibility but I’m sceptical it’ll make much different actually. Loved everything I heard about Battlefront.
Andrewww
I found this year’s e3 quite amazing. Maybe that could’ve been expected, given the new gen now really gets going, but I didn’t.
I usually didn’t watch MS’s press conf, but I’m glad I did now, as they’ve had the best show in my view. The announcement of backwards compatibility was really what caught mass media attention, even if the feature itself is drastically overrated.
Then they presented the elite controller, which is the first one of theirs that actually looks good. In comparison, Sony’s anniversary controller is just so lame.
I missed Bethesda and Enix, but found Ubisoft quite good with plenty of surprises, EA a bit lengthy, but they had the most ‘wow’ effects and games I want.
My personal highlights were:
– Star Wars Battlefront: just WOW. Never touched a single Star Wars game, as they never looked true to the source. This does, and it makes me feel like the little kid watching the first film in the cinema back then. WOW.
– Mirror’s Edge Catalyst: looks very true to the first one which I loved so much, the controller started to hurt in my hands during those speed runs.
– Firewatch: not heard of this before, looks very promising, great dialogues creating an intense atmosphere.
– Uncharted 4, of course, although they’ve played it safe, as it’s more of the same, but that’s a good thing.
– The division still looked great, as did Fallout 4, and quite a few other things, Ghost Recon, Unravel, etc.
– And… streaming worked for the first time for me..! Without stuttering, but it’s about time in 2015…
I was most disappointed by:
– lengthy sports games presentations, which are the very same every year.
– Mass Effect 4: I didn’t like the trailer, expected so much more from them.
– Valve not even turning up, or did they? (why even bothering doing a PC show without them..?)
– Gran Turismo 7 not being mentioned, with full backwards compatibility for older steering wheels out there.
– not hearing much from Sony about Morpheus, I really expected them to make an effort with this one.
– not hearing any numbers for consoles sold from Sony, just a few, to know where we stand in the market. I always liked that.