E3 2019 Report

Another E3 comes to a close and well its more of the same. Lots of big and not so big announcements, a couple of mishaps, lots of people that are too full of themselves and don't admit to it. But most importantly, we got plenty to look forward to in the coming months. Now this year, Sony didn't attend this time which could be down to them wanting to improve their conferences after their disastrous one last year. Also while Google announced their new gaming platform, there were no new consoles revealed by the Big 3 but both Microsoft and Sony (the latter giving us this information by other means) have stated that their new consoles are in the works with an expected release to be some time next year and well Nintendo recently had the Switch released so they are all good for now. So we got a lot to unpack here so let's get to it:




Microsoft

So I want to first of all address the biggest thing to come out of this conference; the reveal of Cyberpunk 2077 and that Keanu Reeves (aka Neo and one half of Bill and Ted) is involved in it and from what I can see it looks really great though I expected nothing less from the people behind the critically acclaimed Witcher series. Other highlights include the return of the Battletoads, countless sequels to all or most of our favourite games with the big ones being Gears of War and Halo, Double Fine joining Microsoft as their latest first party developer and the reveal of what can be best described as the ultimate LEGO Star Wars game mainly because we can play through all nine main films in this one. Also LEGO Racers (today known as LEGO Speed Champions) is back as some kind of DLC for Forza Horizon 4. It was a good conference with plenty to play in the coming months. It is however a shame that some of the presenters still sound like they are reading from a script and that some of the reveals were ruined by Xbox already telling us what it is through a little snippet in every video. But despite this they had a pretty strong line up of games so I can't complain much there.

PC Gaming Show

One of the best things about the PC Gaming Show when I watch it every year is that the presenters and the developers they speak to feel more human than most of the presentations at E3 generally and that the presenters actually make the time to sit or stand and talk to the developers as if it was a chat show with gaming in mind. With all that said, this year is no exception as its just like it has been in the past few years with both hosts both having a lot of fun, being very excited and actually genuine which is nice. The line up is weird but also wonderful (such is the case with PC gaming generally) with the biggest one talked about being the much anticipated Borderlands 3 which had its own dedicated Q&A session during the conference. Other highlights include more info on Planet Zoo, a game that is the Grand Theft Auto of sharks and all the great business that I'm sure this year's sponsor Epic Games Store is going to get or has got. So yeah a great show overall especially when it comes to the presenters and them making time to speak to the developers.

AMD

Althogh as a PC gamer I tend to favour Intel and Nvidia for CPUs and GPUs respectively, I have to admit that AMD are very persuasive with their products. So in their first ever press conference (by first I mean one that they are on their own with and not partnering up with PC Gaming Show like in previous years), they talked about the hardware they have been making for the next Xbox as well as some new hardware that may or may not put Nvidia and Intel to shame. They also tried to answer the big question in which after console gaming, PC gaming, mobile gaming and cloud based gaming, what is next? The answer wasn't what I was expecting, but we got some impressive hardware shown and talked about with the all so important technical details, benchmarks, prices and of course the games while taking a no nonsense approach to presenting. Its great to see a press conference that has a lot of great products to look forward to and giving us those details that most press conferences fail to deliver on. Its great and who knows maybe I will be won over to AMD in the near future. We shall see. Also I find it quite funny that they showed more of Gears of War 5 than Microsoft did and you know when the parent company does bad with its product, it can be quite embarrassing.

Ubisoft

So Ubisoft kicks off their show with a symphony of Assassin's Creed music which was actually very well performed I have to say which followed with dates for the live music tour. Watch Dogs Legion is looking good and I as a British person am glad that we get a game that is set in an open world London though on this occasion its modern times rather than Victorian this time (though the old lady kicking some butt I thought was just hilarious). Other highlights include appearances from actors Jon Bernthal and Rob McElhenney who were there advertising Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Point and Mythic Quest respectively (the latter of which is a TV show being made for Apple TV), what Ubisoft's plans are for the upcoming Google Stadia and a number of game reveals that were largely all Tom Clancy something or other as well as some upcoming material for already established games. Overall, it was a great show from Ubisoft that decided to take a more informative approach over entertainment, but still found ways to entertain us as well so it was a great show with a great line up of games to go with it.

Square Enix

So after one conference where the translator gave up after a while and one where it was just a gaming showcase, this year Square Enix was in better form as we got a stage presence and on the translating front, it looks like they took some notes from Nintendo's attempts at a press conference before doing their Directs in which the translator would speak when the person finishes rather than talking over and trying to keep up. The line up was largely on the next lot of Final Fantsay games with the biggest one obviously being the remake of the beloved Final Fantasy VII in which we see it as a whole new game over being a simple port of the classic. Another big reveal was Crystal Dynamics and their top secret Marvel project now known to the world as simply Avengers. Other highlights include the extended cut DLC for Kingdom Hearts III, the reveal of some never before released outside of Japan games, a few console only games now going to be coming to PC also and some more Dragon Quest games as well. Although totally focused on their biggest franchise, its good to know that Sqaure Enix knows what the gamers want and actually made an effort to make their press conference this year the best it can be. Of course I hope to play all the games they release and I hope we get more from them in the future also.

Nintendo

So as usual, Nintendo give us their already made Direct video and because we aren't in need of a new console from them for a while, we got a bunch of Switch games revealed. Not just that, but Nintendo's new president of America Doug Bowser makes his E3 presenting debut in a funny bit that involves a confused King Bowser so there's that as well. But of course this wasn't the only video they did this year as a few prior we got a Pokemon Direct focused on the next two games Pokemon Sword & Shield which look pretty awesome I have to say. And they did their usual Treehouse streams as well. Highlights include Banjo & Kazooie finally making their Super Smash Bros. debut, more info about the Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening remake as well as news on the sequel to Breath of the Wild, more ports coming to the Switch and some new games in the Animal Crossing, Mario and Sonic and the Olympics, No More Heroes and Marvel Ulimate Alliance franchises. Overall a fantastic line up from Nintendo that shows that they are well and truly on form.

Electronic Arts

I know that Electronic Arts are not the best gaming company out there (or ever for that matter) and given their recent ordeals with the Star Wars license, I personally wasn't expecting anything fantastic. I guess the highlights from their various streams which were shown prior to E3 as they don't directly participate anymore include their new Star Wars game which I hope doesn't make us use too much of our money this time but we shall see. And that was really the main one as the rest are all games to do with sports, The Sims and a few indie titles as well. The line up isn't great this time around, but at least they are trying to make amends for Star Wars: Battlefront II. But I do hope that one day they can be a great company rather than one with so many problems.

Devolver Digital

In a parody of both RoboCop and Nintendo Direct, Devolver Digital give us another largely sketch video that is funny, entertaining and fun while also giving us some games to look forward to as well. With it being very short, the main highlight was it being a sketch. Though the reveals of Enter the Gungeon and The Messenger makes me want to play some of their games. That's really all I have to say on that.

Bethesda

Something that I know may p*** off a lot of gamers is how Bethesda seemingly didn't apologise for what happened with the disastrous Fallout 76. Instead we get a bunch of new things for the game which could be seen as some way of apologising, but it probably won't be enough for some people. Along with the reveal of new games from The Elder Scrolls, Rage, Wolfenstien and Doom franchises, we also hear the return of Commander Keen as well as new software that aims to help improve livestreams of these and possibly other games out there. Although I think an apology is in order for Fallout 76, I can be satisfied in knowing that they are at least trying to be better than most companies with their games and this year's lineup is pretty decent at that so can't really complain there.

Google

So despite not being at E3 this year either, Google also did a thing this year on their new gaming platform known as Stadia which aims to be a streaming platform of sorts with a very strong line up of games to go with it. It will likely compete with PlayStation and Xbox's similar services and it looks like it could be a great thing for gamers to have. Of course I'm sure there is still work to be done on it, but so far its looking really good and I look forward to hopefully try it for myself.

On top of all of that, there were also a lot of games that were not shown in the videos, but the line up overall this year is as great as it can be. There were also some side events such as Nintendo's annual gaming competitions for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Maker 2 and Epic Games' Fortnite event. There was also the gaming BAFTAs as well in which Epic Games got a special award from. Then there is the E3 Coliseum which is largely a panel based event in which there were panels for Netflix's video game efforts, a Psychonauts 2 panel, a Simpsons panel and a Call of Duty one too. And some companies did their own E3 presentations as well making it probably the most packed one yet despite losing Sony for a year.

So yeah its been a good E3 this year. Still room for improvement as always, but a mostly strong line up to look forward too even though we are not getting any new consoles just yet but we are getting a new streaming platform instead and a lot of PC hardware and equipment too.