This E3 has been one of few truly great reveals for me. I’m happy to have seen gameplay of some of my favourite things from the show floor, and there were some things that looked pretty great.
EA’s livestreams gave us a look at Jedi: Fallen Order gameplay, and it looks like a modern day Force Unleashed in terms of combat options and visuals, and using Kashyyyk as the place to show off allowed them to show off a previously seen location in a new era. All good then, as did the look at Battlefield V’s latest content and the new pack for The Sims 4, which offers a tropical location to visit along with the usual new careers and extras. Most of that Saturday was taken up with the Nintendo Championships for me, and… it almost lost me.
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Nintendo showed quite a bit, bookending the Direct (not counting the one more thing) with Smash DLC. First shown was the Dragon Quest Hero, with every mainline hero looking to be a skin for this one character.
Then for the last thing they followed on from the King K. Rool reveal with another troll. This time Duck Hunt Dog pretending to be Banjo and Kazooie, before the duo come crashing down themselves. While the Dragon Quest reveal was followed by a Dragon Quest XI Definitive trailer, we didn’t get anything for the Banjo and Kazooie one. There was plenty of other things to get stuck in to, though. Before we got into all that, Doug Bowser was introduced with a nice gag of the real Bowser showing up. Pokémon Sword and Shield got a recap of its Direct, but also announced that the Pokéball Plus would work with the games. Ubisoft were… fine. It started off well enough with an Assassin’s Creed Symphony preview – a tour playing plenty of songs from the series. There were a few other things within, and they knew what they were doing by putting a new Watch Dogs first, but it was mostly Tom Clancy: The Conference.
We got Division 2 expansions with some free play days coming soon. A mobile game in Elite Squad. Ghost Recon Breakpoint announced. Rainbow Six: Quarantine bringing PvE co-op action. Rainbow Six: Siege content Clutch Royale. And for me it was all the weakest part. Trailers split up to allow some talking in-between or talking when showing things would be just as good. And they mentioned that the movie was coming to Netflix. Microsoft, you knew what you were doing with this. Very little talk, and a lot of action. Plenty of games shown with trailers, some services news, and building the hype for that new console. The conference felt fast and fluid, and the announcements that I was waiting for certainly arrived.
There was The Outer Worlds, Bleeding Edge, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Battletoads, Spiritfarer, and Blair Witch starting things off, along with a new trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Minecraft Dungeons got announced, which looks to be a fun mystery dungeon game playable with friends. It’s E3 time again! Sony are a no-show, and EA have decided to change how they do things again (is that a tradition for them, now?) by having a livestream from the floor instead of a conference, though everyone else is here.
Bethesda, Devolver, and Square-Enix return, Ubisoft is present as always, and Microsoft is looking one to watch with that roughly two-hour presentation. Then there’s Nintendo, who is going all-out once again with the usual three days of Treehouse streams, a Direct presentation, and a whole day full of Championships. They’re going to be one to watch, but let’s save the best for last. |