By Mike McCarthy
E3 is like Christmas for gamers, or at least until actual Christmas comes and we get to unwrap all the game we just saw from under the tree. E3 is when we get to look at the gaming landscape for the next 18 months, games that will be coming this fall and holiday, what we will be playing next spring, and then a small look at what is slated for the tail end of 2016 as well. Most of the big guns come out at the press events each year. All the big players show off their line ups, game play demos, and hit us with their crazy news stories. So let’s jump into what made E3 2015 amazing, and take a look at what video games are going to look like for the rest of the year.
The event kicked off Sunday night with Bethesda’s hour long event. For those of you who don’t know the name Bethesda, don’t feel bad they are not the biggest name in gaming, but they are working on that. You probably know them best for their work on Elder Scrolls Skyrim and Oblivion, and also Fallout. But those are just the games they make themselves. They also produce games like Dishonored for Arkane studio, and Doom and Wolfenstein from ID. This year they showed off the new Doom game, coming early 2016. The coolest thing they showed was Doom SnapMap, a level creator that not only allows you to make new maps but also gameplay modes. You can design any sort of multiplayer experience you want. This thing looks so fleshed out that it looks like they build their whole single player game using this tool.
The other big piece of their show was a huge chunk of Fallout 4. They showed off a collectors edition with a pip boy that you can actually wear on your arm and slide your smartphone in that you can load up with an app that resembles you in game menu/ inventory system. Fallout 4 itself really stole the show, with a nice long gameplay demo showing off the main character walking through the open world, finding a dog companion, and building his own shelter from scraps found around the post apocalyptic world. Fallout 4 has been in production since right after Skyrim launched in late 2011 and it was just revealed a week ago, right before E3. The big shocker though is this game is coming out this November, five months from announcement to launch. I for one am glad the wait for this one isn’t very long, can’t wait to play it.
The following day Microsoft started off the action with their Xbox Briefing, and totally dropping the mic with their plethora of announcements and partnership reveals. Of course they showed off Halo 5 and the new Tomb Raider, but the big punches from this show were the announcement of Xbox 360 backwards compatibility for Xbox One and their new mod integration and early access program. 100 Xbox 360 games will be playable on Xbox by the end of the year, and 100 more will come at the beginning of next year, and the only thing holding Microsoft back from allowing the game to be played is the developer giving them permission. Now a lot of people will say they don’t want to play old gen games, but as we see with every game under the sun getting re-released on this new gen, there are still people looking to play these great game experiences.
The other innovative announcements game from more Fallout 4 news when Todd Howard told us that any published PC mod for Fallout 4 will be accessible on the Xbox One version of the game. And following that Microsoft announced “Xbox Game Preview” which will work a lot like Steam’s Early Access program. Unfinished games can be published early while still in development, and we the players can play them while the games become more feature complete, giving feedback and seeing how the game comes together. Xbox is stepping in a more PC like state with is going to be great for gamers. It means we will have more options with our games to play the way we want.
Microsoft finished the show with a look into their new in house gears game. A vertical slice was shown of two players in a new setting facing new monsters. The game is still a ways off, a splash screen of Holiday 2016 displayed at the end of the game demo. But it just goes to show that Microsoft is going to keep their platform up to date with plenty of first party offerings each and every year.
Following Microsoft was two more publisher conferences, EA and Ubisoft, two of the big three when it comes to publishing (Activision being the biggest publisher does not have a press event at E3) Both shows were fairly predictable, showing off their annual franchises and big already announced titles. Ubisoft ended their show with another big game reveal for the fourth straight year, making it somewhat of an expected thing. EA took a bold step and showed off an indie game called Unravel in the middle of their show. It’s a game where you play as a yarn doll that is perpetually caught on the left side of the screen and unraveling as you move further and further to the right of the screen. You also must use this yarn resource as a puzzle solving device, lassoing it to branches to cross gaps, or making a trampoline between branches to propel yourself upward. It was a really cool game and a really cool break from the horde of AAA titles.
Sony finished off the first full day of press events with a trip down memory lane. An escalating reveal of three mega long awaited project were shown to open their show. The Last Guardian, which was revealed nine years ago is finally being finished and is coming next year. A Final Fantasy 7 remake is in the works (a personal favorite of yours truly) which was teased back in 2005, but is finally coming to fruition like all the fans have been asking for. The last to trot out was finally an end to the Shenmue series. A third game has been on again off again since it’s predecessor launched in 2001. Finally they have found funding in the form of Kickstarter. They broke a world record for fastest collection of a million dollars (102 minutes) and reached their two million dollar goal in 12 hours, another record for Kickstarter. Their Kickstarter was just a way to show Sony the vast interest in the series, and now they will be funding the rest of the game, making it console exclusive to PS4.
Sony had to show some of it’s other games in development, like Uncharted, which is still slated for 2016, but really wowed the crowd with showing off a new game from their traditionally Killzone studio, Guerilla Games. They demoed their new game Horizon: Zero Dawn, a game that takes place after technology has grown too big and consumed us, turning us back into the hunter gatherers that we used to be. The remnants of our society are evident, but nature has reclaimed the land, and now biomechanical monsters roam free, forcing the human race down on the food chain. In the demo the main character is show attack and hunting these beasts for presumably parts and substance with a very powerful bow. The demo ends with a massive battle between her and a large dino looking robot. As she huffs in victory the demo fades out to the title. The game is set for a 2016 release, holiday no doubt, but I for one cannot wait to see more and actually play it.
You would think the conference would be over now, but there were still two more press events the next morning. Unfortunately they were both pretty lackluster. Nintendo had a digital event instead of a live show like all the other companies, a tradition they started last year. Personally the Wii U is the only big system on the scene that I don’t have, and Nintendo again didn’t give me a real good reason to buy one. A few good games are coming here and there, but besides some rehashes of old game ideas, there is nothing really good in the pipeline for them on their home console. The delay in their Zelda game is hurting the Wii U more than it’s already struggling. The AAA system seller was not part of their show, as to be expected, and instead focused more on Star Fox and Mario Maker, both set to come this fall. The rest of their show was dedicated to the 3DS, which is having a fine life of it’s own, but also like the Wii U, isn’t showing the greatest line up right now, outside of their niche games that only really appeal to the Nintendo faithful.
The final event of the week was a Square Enix Press Event. Square, having already showed their big guns earlier with the Final Fantasy 7 remake at Sony’s show, really didn’t have anything too crazy to talk about. They gave some release dates for some of their western games (Hitman, Just Cause) but were kind of behind the 8 ball when it came to their more Japanese games. They showed off some that they are working on, but didn’t give any great gameplay demos or set any dates of release windows, allowing us to believe that these games are not coming out any time soon. Their biggest game to show was Kingdom Hearts 3, a long awaited game (like so many others this year) a nice gameplay trailer was shown, but not much else was revealed about the highly anticipated game. It’s not coming for awhile, so there is still time to see more, but it still left a hollow feeling in the whole show that there wasn’t much substance in their hour long presentation.
E3 was stellar this year. It had highs and lows, as to be expected, but for a year that didn’t have major consoles announcements (usually the peak E3’s) this was a top show compared to the past. We are really seeing what our current generation systems are capable of two years into their lives. This fall and even 2016 look to be very expensive with all these great new games to play, start saving those pennies now.
*Written By Brett Marden