Yesterday we had three shows of note, namely the PC Gaming Show, Ubisoft and SquareSoft. This morning I am going to do my best to cover all of the topics of importance to me personally. Like I said yesterday this is my rundown of the show and I am certain I missed something that you really dug. However these are the things that I consider to be worth watching on a personal level.
PC Gaming Show
The PC Gaming Show is such a weird crapshoot as far as whether or not it is going to show something that I ultimately care about. As a whole it has come a really long way in production quality because that very first year seemed like it was legitimately happening in a High School Auditorium. Now it at least rivals the production of the big shows and I think Day 9 does a really great job with his reoccurring role as master of ceremonies. As far as substance goes… there really was not a whole lot that interested me, and definitely not much that I had not already seen before.
In the category of games I find interesting but will almost certainly not like playing once it releases… we have Last Oasis. The game appears to be based on gathering resources in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone has weird land-strider ships There is one that is clearly a pirate of sorts since it is flying banners with skulls on it. Late in the trailer a giant strider that looms over both of the other two shows up proving there is always a bigger fish in the sea… or in this case strider on the land? This describes itself as a nomadic survival MMO… which probably means having to deal with a lot of horrible people to get resources to be able to keep playing the game. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I am intrigued by the machinery.
This is the point where I admit that I never played the original Vampire Bloodlines. I am not sure what I was doing at the time, but the time I did attempt to play it I had all manner of technical difficulties. I hear from lots of friends however that it was an amazing experience, and as such I am really looking forward to playing a modern version of that franchise. This is definitely something we knew about going into the show, and I still think it looks great.
I like the Age of Wonders series and I loved Alpha Centauri. So I am most definitely interested in a game that appears to blend these two things together. It also has Dinosaurs with Lasers… who doesn’t love Dinosaurs with Lasers? Again another title that I definitely knew about but am still interested in.
This appears to be a blend of a game like FTL and something along the lines of Rimworld. You are building a colony of folks that have been in cryo pods and are responsible for their survival in a world that has other groups of individuals trying to do the same. My biggest turn off with Rimworld is the complete shit graphics and the seeming lack of support for adding new graphic packs that make them less shit. So when I saw this I was definitely interested given the large amount of customization that the trailer shows. I will be watching this one.
I’ve never really played Brawlhalla even though it has been at literally every Pax South event. I don’t have the deep nostalgia towards Smash Bros that the generation younger than me seems to. However I do love Adventure Time so if they keep adding character packs like this it starts to make me more and more interested in the game as a whole. Going to give this an honorable mention.
Ubisoft Show
UbiSoft traditionally is a pretty good show, but this year… things were just not in a good place. For starters can I just talk about how much I miss Aisha Tyler as the host? UbiSoft used to be this super fun show filled with weird dancing numbers that brought forth the joy of videos games… and this time around that dancing number just felt weird and forced. The highlight of the show without a doubt was getting to see Jon Bernthal’s dog… at which point my twitter feed erupted into a slew of comments about that good boy.
There was a subscription plan for Uplay announced for $16 a month… which seems extremely high once you factor in that the PC Only basic Microsoft Game Pass is only going to be $5 a month. They announced that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is getting a Story Creator addon that will allow users to make their own content… which I guess will allow them to stretch one more year out of this AC title. I am somewhat excited about the Division getting a Netflix movie staring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain, so we will have to see how that ultimately turns out. As far as game releases however it felt really hollow.
I’ve never played a Watchdogs game, but Legions so far looks amazing. It isn’t so much the gameplay but instead what it is promising. According to the demo this is a game where you can legitimately recruit and play as every character you can encounter. If that is true that is just a level of nonsense I have never seen in a video game. They show off footage of playing as an adorable little old British lady that happens to be a renowned hacker who is responsible for stealing files from Scotland Yard. I’ve learned recently that I actually do like the Ubisoft formula for games, so I need to go back and play through the first two Watchdogs to get a feel for how this one will ultimately play out.
The only other game really worth noting at the UbiSoft show was a title that we saw next to nothing about called Gods and Monsters which appears to be a sort of Breath of the Wild set in Greek Mythology type of game. That premise seems like something I would be interested in and the visuals are gorgeous… even though this is a high production trailer that is likely not going to represent anything even vaguely close to what the final game looks like. I am grasping at straws folks… it was a really weak show other than Watchdogs.
SquareSoft
Square was definitely the strongest of the publisher shows, and probably comes in a close second behind Microsoft as far as the total quality of the show experience. That is not saying a lot because the absence of Sony was most definitely felt this year. Square however showed off a ton of stuff, but a good number of the announcements were platform reveals of games that have already been around for ages in other forms. There were a few big ones that I will go over.
This is the most anticipated title that we were expecting from the show and I am not entirely certain what sort of game it really is going to be? There was a lot of switching of perspectives during the trailer but it appears to be a game along the lines of the most recent Spiderman offering where you are placed in control of one of the avengers as you move your way through missions. They stated that it would be a 4 player co-op experience and that they would be adding new characters as they went… with a late trailer Hank Pym tease. So we can mostly assume this is going to be a live service game but they stated that all new champions would be free and that there would be no loot boxes… they did not however say anything about cosmetics so I could in theory see a bunch of alternate costumes for your heroes. They have Thor and they have Cap so I am going to be good.
We also saw a lot of battle footage for Final Fantasy VII Remake as well as character reveals for Tifa and Sephiroth. The combat system seems to be a blend of something along the lines of Final Fantasy XV that is purely action combat with the ability to pause and queue up specific attacks in a menu structure very familiar to Final Fantasy VII. I am largely on board with everything I have seen to date and look forward to replaying this game in what seems to be a greatly expanded version. They said the game itself would be two blu-ray discs worth of content. I guess we have reached the point of disc swapping in this generation as well?
I loved playing the first Dragon Quest Builders and was amped when I saw the second one announce. However it has been out in Japan for quite some time now and I was curious when we would actually get it on this side of the pond. The answer apparently is really soon, because they flashed a July release date. This unfortunately will get delayed behind Shadowbringers for me, but I am definitely looking forward to it.
This is largely exciting only because it is more official localization from Square. I attempted to play a fan translation back in the day of Romancing SaGa 3 which was a Super Nintendo Era title, and I didn’t get terribly far due to the incompleteness. I am looking forward to playing through it at some point, but god I have no clue when I am going to squeeze in all of the gaming that I already have in backlog.
This one came from out of left field and is not something at all that I would expect from a Square show. This appears to be a co-op scifi shooter and since I like those… I will be watching it. The trailers were at least compelling, but sadly there isn’t an awful lot more available even on the website. You fight giant monsters and apparently open big doors… so yeah… hopefully we get more information during E3 about this.
Going to mention this one largely because it is a style of game that you really don’t see much. They are planning on delivering a top down racing experience ala Micromachines or R.C. Pro-am with high fidelity controls. The art style is adorable, so I want to check this out whenever it is available. This is more my speed than the ultra realism style racing games that we are more used to.
Not much was announced regarding Shadowbringers in part because we are just about to get the game legitimately within two or three weeks. However they did drop the final release trailer, which includes all sorts of nonsense that I don’t even know what to make of. It sets up some individuals that are in theory going to be our enemies in the new expansion. It also seems to show us cooperating at least in part with an Ascian. The mic drop moment however is when it comes out and says that Hydaelyn and Zodiark are primals. Nonsense is incoming and I am on board with this!
Slowing Down
There is only one show left and that is the Nintendo Direct happening at some point today. I am not exactly sure what to expect but I am ultimately hoping we get more information and a release date about the Metroid Prime project. I feel like I am going to need to write about my general thoughts at some point regarding this E3, because across the board it has been a bit of a disappointment. I get the distinct impression that all of these publishers are holding things back and will be announcing the next batch of franchise titles on the Xbox Scarlett (if that name sticks) and the PS5 whenever we actually see it.
What were your favorite games of the day? Anything in particular that you liked that I did not talk about? Let me know in the comments.
I’m watching the Avenger’s with some interest. Not even necessarily to play. But its one of those franchises which in gaming has been terribly mistreated — from terrible movie tie ins to cash grab mobile titles.
So much so that even though nothing I saw looked terribly offensive, I’m left with a pretty negative impression regardless. I’m extremely curious whether they can do enough to combat that sort of impression. That Crystal Dynamics is at the helm of it gives me some hope that they might, but guess we’ll see!
Starmancer caught my interest as well! And so did “Telling Lies”, because I already played and really liked “Her Story”. Other than that, I saw several games that I think sound fun, but nothing that I would want to play myself.