The E3 press conferences used to be a place where game companies would surprise people, but lately thanks to leaks or publishers trying to get out in front of news cycles there aren’t a lot of surprises any more. The only company that seems to really be able to have those exciting shock moments is Sony. Will any of those games be good? Will they be out any time soon? Who knows, but they make for a good show. Now that is not to say that other companies didn’t have a lot to show, they did, and a lot of it was good. There just wasn’t the excitement level that we used to have.
EA
EA had a good year with Star Wars, Mass Effect, and Titanfall 2, but honestly Battlefield 1 was still by far the most impressive thing that they had to show. I don’t think I have been this jazzed about a Battlefield game since 1941.
Bethesda
Bethesda has had a reduced E3 presence since they bought Id, and thus bought QuakeCon, but they still had a couple of new games to show, one of which was the much wondered about Prey 2. Which is no longer a ‘2’ or anything like what that game or its predecessor were, but the new Prey still looks very interesting. Also we are getting a new Quake. After a new Wolfenstein and Doom, this was hardly a shock.
Microsoft
Microsoft started and ended their show talking about hardware. While I can’t wait to get my hands on a more powerful Xbox at least I will have a lot of games to play to help me bide my time. They had what might be my game of show, Sea of Thieves. I was curious before, but the video above and the show floor hands-ons have me supper hyped for this game.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft’s show was all over the place. Steep a new extreme sports game looked like a lot of fun, but the disappointing Ghost Recon: Wildlands demo was a real bummer. Worst game reveal this year. They also really want Watch Dogs to be a thing. Watch Dogs 2 was like half of the show.
Sony
Sony went all out! Games that we have been wanting for years like Last Guardian got release dates, and then they announced stuff like Death Stranding. I don’t know what the heck is going on in that video, but it has got everyone talking. Great job Sony!
Nintendo
Zelda. Nintendo brought Zelda and little else. This Zelda looks to be the most ‘Western RPG’ inspired, and it looks great, but Nintendo needs to do something soon to knock our socks off. Otherwise they will not even be worth talking about.
All in All there were a lot of great games brought to this year’s E3, but just not a lot of surprises. I can’t wait to get my hands on Sea of Thieves or figure out what Death Stranding is all about. It looks like we got a lot of good years of gaming still ahead of us!