E3 2015 Thoughts: Sony, Nintendo, Square Enix, PC Gaming

This is obviously the better half of E3 :)

Sony:

I like that expression, the video game industry is part of the "cultural zeitgeist" of our time. Instantly starting strong with a much anticipated (almost vaporware) title, The Last Guardian has finally returned and is looking magically wonderful.

Representing the Dutch branch of video game development, Guerilla Games introduces a new IP called Horizon: Zero Dawn, with stunning landscapes, a large scope, mechanical enemies and you play as a prehistoric looking hunter ironically.

Street Fighter 5 remains odd because of it's controversial new way of defining exclusivity, yet consider me interested in seeing how the new features will work out for this fifth title. No Man's Sky is in a similar status for being partially exclusive, and it's hard to judge this one's potential massive scope. Carl Sagan's quote does boost the hype.

Media Molecule's Dreams is an original looking title about creating, sharing and feelings conceptual dreams, or art works. It's too late for me to be excited for Destiny because the vanilla release just simply was a repetitive grind festival as previously reviewed, so it got sold.

Final Fantasy VII remake is finally REALLY HAPPENING! But because this is still the Sony section, let's talk more about this a little more down below here. Shenmue III is another long awaited sequel of which I regrettably still have to start on, but is nonetheless another exciting announcement.

Project Morpheus is another contender for the virtual reality market which is re-opening very soon, and it's just too early to judge which of the devices will be the best one. Call of Duty might be milked to death, but at least it ain't shovelware, so yeah, I will get around Black Ops III sooner or later.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a great way to end this conference, but it seems that something went wrong technically for the first round, which is forgivable. And with The Nathan Drake Collection appearing as well, I am utterly content and eager for the ultimate Uncharted experience.

Rating: A

Nintendo:

A Muppets intro, haha my puppet body is ready! Do a barrel roll meme, this was unexpected.

Star Fox Zero is looking like it just saved gaming in general, I really cannot wait to play what seems to be Star Fox 64's successor, FINALLY. The Amiibo expansion is out of control, and with having only Diddy Kong so far personally, I'm definitely not sold out on them.

So Hyrule Warriors Legends was leaked already, but Triforce Heroes seems to be a continuation on the Four Sword formula with an A Link Between Worlds art style, except that this time cooperation is encouraged, and competition is lessened. The totem mechanic is also something unique.

The Animal Crossing spin-offs Happy Home Designer and Amiibo Festival aren't sealing the deal for me, instead, people were expecting a proper Wii U edition. And although Fire Emblem Fates is looking promising, I can't say the same for Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, as it bores me.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is truly one of the upcoming must have games from Monolith Soft and Nintendo, however it's painful to wait for it. Metroid Prime Blast Ball was previously hinted at, but Metroid Prime Federation Force first of all looks UGLY and blocky, I can't believe I just said this, but it's not looking appealing to me as some kind of Hunters sequel/spiritual successor.

And finally, the celebration of Super Mario Bros.'s 30th anniversary is not only enhanced by the fun looking Super Mario Maker(another spiritual successor, this time towards Mario Paint), but also by Mario Tennis Ultra Smash and surprisingly Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, where the two Mario RPG sub-series merge into one adventure.

So there's great stuff, but also dissapointing stuff for Nintendo this year. Or, perhaps Nintendo has yet to announce something else later on, which they sometimes do. This underwhelming feeling is caused because a real surprise or effective announcement was missing. I suppose Yoshi's Woolly World will keep me occupied and happy soon enough later this month to rebounce this conclusion.

And it was confirmed by Nintendo themselves that Zelda Wii U would be absent at E3 2015. On second thought, and to be fair, we did get a decent Smash 4 Direct earlier, so maybe Nintendo shouldn't had segmented the two events.

Rating: B

Square Enix:

 
With interesting bits of trivia from Square, Enix and Eidos,The press conference started with Just Cause, which I haven't touched upon yet, the same goes for Hitman. And Nier. And Kingdom Hearts. And Star Ocean. Got a lot of catching up to do.

World of Final Fantasy is a cutified tribute and celebration to what the title is saying, apparently from the preview. Similar to Dissidia or Theatrhythm, Squeenix is also having a lot of fun of commemorating Final Fantasy in general

Final Fantasy VII remade is a fan's dream come true, or a generation's dream, for all of us who played their first Final Fantasy back in 1997 on the PSX(Or the PC for me). So this is very exciting for the most popular entry that changed RPG gaming.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is another personal upcoming favorite, with the same team from Human Revolution developing this to expand upon it's design even further. Not too much information was available yet for Project Setsuna.

Rating: C+

PC Gaming:

Honesty, this was the most boring press conference. Although a PC presentation is a good idea, all of the games portrayed were bland, more of the same, convoluted in order of appearance and forgetabble. I did like the presentator being excited in general. Even AMD's graphical cards almost had me yawning. Better excitement for everyone next year. Not even Blizzard could save this.

Rating: D 

Multiplatform:

As an extra paragraph, with exceptions already talked earlier about, here are a bunch of video games which aren't exclusive, yet they deserve to be written about.

Batman: Arkham Knight is having a snowball effect of announced DLC coming up, but ignoring that, I can't wait to delve into the Bat's next-generation struggle against vengeful rogues in the biggest and grittiest Gotham City yet.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain had another stunning long trailer where rather than more questions being answered, new ones have filled up the community which theorize frantically as we speak about the characters, the central theme of language, how big the scope will be and how the hell it will end and transcend over into Metal Gear.

Dark Souls III is a fan favorite because it promises content which ain't broken nor obnoxious yet, and also, people are wondering how the lore will evolve, how the online scene will be, what horrifying bosses await and of course how beautiful the game's world will be. From Software declares it to be the final episode, but just you wait until Dragon or Death Souls comes along, next towards Bloodborne 2.

And that's all folks! Unless someone decides to announce a surprise or two tomorrow at E3's final day, E3 2015 was certainly no dissapointment in general and actually one of the better ones in so far as we can remember the previous ones.

E3 2015 Thoughts: Bethesda, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft

Bethesda:

So Bethesda is nowadays a publisher of both Wolfenstein and Doom, huh. Both of the franchises have a current strong uprising, what with The New Order and The Old Blood bringing back good old fast paced shooting with armor, health packs and not just 2 guns.

Or what about the upcoming Doom, which seems to be a mixture of Doom 1, 2 and 3 in regards to setting, enemies, guns and multiplayer. For the first official time, a map editor called Snap
map will let the community share their creations.

Dishonored 2 is another title I'm looking forward too because the original was pretty much a successor to the Thief franchise in my eyes, it had multiple paths to take, a good atmosphere, very good DLC and just satisfying overall gameplay.

I have no excuse for not mentioning Fallout or The Elder Scrolls, other than I have yet to start with both franchises. In time, this will happen eventually. But until then, they will have to wait, because other video games are waiting too!

Rating: C

Microsoft:

With Microsoft proclaiming the biggest lineup in the history of Xbox, I wanted to believe them, but crucial titles such as Scalebound and arguably Banjo Threeie missing kind of made the show incomplete. Backwards compatibility is a huge advantage however, and now only Sony is left behind in this field.

We all wanted to see that famous platform duo return, but instead, we get Rare Replay, 30 of Rare's most prominent games from the past, alongside a new IP called Sea of Thieves, promising a lifestyle of pirates.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is looking good, and ReCore is surprising because Comcept and Aramture, or Keiji Inafune and ex-Metroid Prime developers are working together on this one. Halo and Gears of War are simply more franchises I have yet to start with.

I gotta say that last year was most likely more impressive than this one for me personally. But on another topic, with the HoloLens and the Oculus Rift already having been showcased, it won't be too long now until the virtual reality wars start happening.

Rating: C+

EA:

Mass Effect Andromeda is unveiled with a cinematic trailer, and I'm interested in seeing what BioWare has in store for this next generation title. As usual, the sports games continue to be less exciting for pretty much anyone, as even the audience reflects this back each year.

Star Wars Battlefront gameplay looks great! It's been ages since I played a previous Star Wars game, which was Jedi Outcast for me, it's time to attempt Battlefront out just in time before Episode VII is released.

The Swedish Unravel looks promising, the creative developer was brave to speak out for his creation, seeming as he was obviously nervous and excited. Minions Paradise and Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 both could not hold my interest.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst also looks promising for a reboot.

Rating: C

Ubisoft: 

For Honor is refreshing to see, not for it's setting, but for it's arena/cooperative potential. So we have been seeing The Division for a while, which is another co-op title, yet it will take until early 2016 before we can experience it. It does look solid in a bland sense.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is the umpteenth title in currently the most milked franchise at the moment, but at least the settings and historical era's keep changing. Personally I have only played 1 and 2, and I am still wondering how much more will be touched by me.

Nice to see Track Mania appearing on the next-gen consoles. Did they really had to bring out Girlwood as the main presentator again? It's becoming an awful meme to be honest.

Ghost Recon Wildlands might be the first GR that pirks my interest for it's presentation, but other than that, yeah, the gazillionth shooter just got announced. Which wraps up a predictable and generic Ubisoft presentation.

Rating: C

E3 2015 Wishes and Expectations

This year, E3 is bound to become bigger than ever, as for the first time, when looking at the press conferences, there are 3 new ones attempting to conquer the audiences, live and worldwide. The Electronic Entertainment Expo has been going strong for almost 20 years, and I have been an enthousiastic reader since at least 2002.

And with the latest years, I have watched live streams of the conferences, arguably the biggest part of the expo, with expectations and wishes. Now that Sony's PlayStation is also part of the "family" personally, I am even more excited than usually anticipating Nintendo and the PC scene.

Speaking of which, the PC scene will have it's own press conference, alongside Square Enix and Bethesda, who will all no doubt talk with passion about their projects and the industry itself, and I'm sure that everyone will have at least 1 surprise waiting.

With upcoming top promising video games like The Phantom Pain, Arkham Knight and Xenoblade X already coming up later this year, 2015 continues to be worth watching. And with that said, let's take a quick look at what I am expecting and what I am wishing for to appear at E3:

 Expected:

-Dark Souls III-

I'm still quite shocked how soon this is about to get announced just after Bloodborne's March release, but it seems according to the leaked screenshots that it's really happening again. Miyazaki returns as the father of the franchise to direct this highly anticipated title.


-Paper Mario Wii U-

Again, the rumour wheel has been spinning, and voices are whispering that Paper Mario Wii U is a likely candidate. In order to rejuvenate the sub-series of Mario RPG's, it could potentially go back to the formula of the first two and make it even better with paper physics, new features and the functionality of the Gamepad.


-Banjo Threeie-

Even without the recent surprise kickstarter project of Yooka Laylee, which arguably is even more anticipated by Banjo Kazooie fans themselves, a part 3 of the actual series is still a likely possibility, what with the recent revival of Killer Instinct and Microsoft plus Rare looking for ways to make the Xbox brand stronger.

Wishes:

-F-Zero U/F-Zero 3D-

This is actually in my opinion the number 1 Nintendo franchise which desperately needs to return. I already dedicated a whole blog towards creating a hypothetical F-Zero U and/or F-Zero 3DS, so please, take another look at that post why it should finally get announced already.

-Advance Wars-

The brethren series of Fire Emblem, otherwise known as the militaristic multiplayer alternative for Nintendo handhelds, Advance Wars is another series that deserves another shot, either with the style starting with GBA, or the one with Dark Conflict, or perhaps something entirely new.

-Resident Evil 7-

First of all, the Revelations sub-series are very good, keep them up! As for part 7, Capcom should either go straight survival horror with it, turn a new direction, or give Shinji Mikami his seat back so that he can deliver again like he exceptionally did with REmake and Resident Evil 4, the two most important titles in the series if you ask me.

-The Last Guardian and Half-Life 3-

Two highly anticipated vaporware titles which should get cancelled if they don't get announced at E3 if you ask me. It's a terrible thing to not deliver with these two, but at the same time it would be even more terrible to have been hoping for them for so long, and then to find out that there wasn't any kind of development going on at all.

-Any Mega Man game-

Mega Man, excluding Xover, has gotten his break for over 5 years. It's been long enough, and with the recent news article of a new producer overseering the portfolio now, fans including me are hoping for any kind of either a new, original title(not the Legacy Collection), OR a must needed sequel to the X, the ZX or the Legends series, for they all have currently ended with cliffhangers, of which the most massive one is easily Legends.