Nintendo invites us to have a smashing good time today.
Super Mario Party
Mario Party is a virus that somehow managed to spread to the Nintendo Switch. Make sure to get your Switch vaccinated to prevent any life threatening symptoms.
In theory Mario Party is neat, but in execution I think it’s been mostly terrible. It looks like a return to form for the series, but that form has never been something I’ve been enthused about in the first place. But this is great news for people who do.
Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
Yeah it might just be an updated version of the original Wii U release, but that game was so good and deserved better. I’m really happy that it’s getting a second chance on the Switch.
Overcooked 2
Overcooked 1 was a chaotic nightmare that was a blast to play with friends. Overcooked 2 looks like more of the same but with some extra features and scenarios bound to make you yell at the person sitting next to you.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Everyone is confirmed for Smash. Snake, Cloud, Sonic, you, me. We’re all confirmed. Your cousin, he’s confirmed for Smash as well. Smash Bros Ultimate, as the title implies, is the most comprehensive game in the series, bringing in characters and modes from all the previous entries. There’s a luchador Pikachu too, which might be the best inclusion I’ve ever seen.
But really, this trailer has just been the equivalent of a YouTube video of patch notes. It’s informative if you’re an active follower, but I really don’t care about the mechanics of Pichu. There are about 65 characters in this game, and each of them had a talking point to go over. This combined with the focus on the more advanced fighting techniques seems like Nintendo is leaning very hard into the competitive scene.
This looks to me like Nintendo is using Ultimate as a Smash Bros. platform that can be updated for the rest of the life cycle of the Switch, which is smart. Put out a comprehensive platform for one of the most popular Nintendo games.
Also, I guess that after more than twenty years of asking, they’re finally putting Ridley in the game. So now everyone will shut up I’m sure. And also it’s launching December 7th of this year, so get to preordering everyone.
Hideo Kojima presents: The Sony 2018 E3 Press Briefing.
The Last of Us II
We open on the composer of The Last of Us sitting in the corner of the stage and playing some very somber tunes on his banjo. Without any gameplay happening. Just him playing the banjo. In this very small church themed venue.
Once he finishes, the lights fade and the footage begins. We open on some people having a party in the exact same venue the conference is happening in, which is weird but cool. We get some context to our main character, Ellie as she’s slow dancing with another woman and eventually kisses her. Then we get a fade to black and reemerge on her slitting a dudes fucking throat in the woods. Very romantic.
It’s all gameplay from here as we see Ellie creeping through the jungle and sneaking around enemy encampments. We come to a scene of some people simultaneously hanging and stabbing another dude which is insanely brutal and inefficient. Through a combination of using a bow and arrow as well as a hammer, she’s taking down her enemies. She eventually is shot at by a gunman which understandably, makes her start running away. She manages to get far enough away and hide under a truck, but eventually is found.
Here we get to see some of the more frantic gunplay and action. Everything seems incredibly dynamic in the way she seamlessly switches from firing a gun to picking up and throwing a brick at a dude to taking a human shield. She eventually ducks into a shop where the stealth elements make their return. While hiding, she crafts an explosive arrow which shes uses exactly how you’d expect. She finishes the last bad guy off and we get a wonderful transition back into the party where this all started.
It’s here I want to emphasize that all of this looks amazing. The animations, the art, all of it is fantastic. It blends from cutscene to gameplay and back and it does it flawlessly. I still don’t know much of anything about the story, but this segment has done enough to pique my interest.
Intermission
Yeah, so it’s here that I realized that they’re moving the audience of the venue into the main theater where the rest of the conference will take place. During this time we have a round table discussion about the current state of Sony and how it’s more recent successes are effecting new games and future decisions. Here they confirmed a new game plus mode for God of War.
They appear to be using this transitional moment to also showcase some trailers for other games. One of these was an ad for classic Black Ops maps available in the upcoming Black Ops IIII. We also learn that as of tonight, Call of Duty Black Ops III will be free for Playstation Plus members.
Ghosts of Tsushima
Here is a man playing an instrument I cannot name, but he blows into it and cool music comes out of the other end. The music stops and the footage starts rolling.
We see a Japanese warrior of some sort walking through a pretty fucked up battlefield with some mourning people crouched up and down the side of the road. He walks up to the top of a hill so we can admire the beauty of the world Sucker Punch has built. He calls for his horse, climbs aboard and sets off through the field and into the forest. Eventually we reach a clearing where some bad guys are executing another man. I’d say we were hacking and slashing through these dudes, but it’s way more deliberate and way more brutal.
We meet up with a companion of ours and run up to an enemy occupied temple. It looks like we’ve entered to stealth portion of this game. Our character climbs onto a roof and makes his way to an opening in the temple. He jumps down into the room and slow-mo murders 3 enemies before stabbing a guy through a door who attempts to sound the alarm.
Upon exiting the temple, our companion tries to pull some shit and challenges us in battle. It basically turns into a Soul Calibur/Bushido Blade game and it looks fucking mind blowing. Suddenly someone shoots fire arrows into the fray the entire field starts burning around them. Our companion and us stop fighting to team up against the incoming horde where it cuts to black and we see the logo.
I am in love with this game.
Control
What if Psy-Ops met Quantum Break? You’d get the latest Remedy game. A woman used psychic powers and guns to fuck people up in this Escher-ass looking game. It looks like a game that is aiming to mess with your mind and the trailer does a good job at establishing that. It’s slated for 2019, and I am onboard.
Death Stranding
So here we are, a Hideo Kojima game is being “shown” at E3. I’m surprised this isn’t just a big slide that just says “FUCK KONAMI.” We see gameplay of Norman Reedus and another guy trudging through various terrains while carrying cargo on their backs. Then, instead of carrying just cargo, we see a guy carrying what looks like a mummy around. At this point I think this is a weird moving and/or hiking simulator, until a guy pulls out a gun.
It’s right here that I realize that I’m trying to describe a Hideo Kojima trailer and I probably just sound like I’ve lost my mind. Invisible hand-footed monsters roam the land and Norman Reedus can’t be bothered to wear a shirt. I still have no idea what this game is about or how it plays but I didn’t expect that I’d find out tonight.
My guess he’s carrying a clone of himself around with him in the form of a baby in a jar. Then he did a sneaking bit past some floating ghost demons or something. I genuinely have no clue what I’m looking at. But Reedus gets swallowed up by the ground and we cut to a woman eating something followed by a cut to another woman standing on a beach dramatically.
I do not know what it is I just watched, nor do I know how I feel about it. Death Stranding ostensibly is a game that one day you might be able to buy.
We open with a crashing helicopter in which Spiderman, does Spiderman things with his spider webs to avoid any injuries. After the crash we get to see some awesome looking combat that reminds me of the Arkham games, but even faster and with some neat special moves sprinkled in.
The Sinister Six are on the loose and they’re all trying to fuck Spiderman up. They all go ahead and leave so Spiderman can fight some goons, which looks just as fun as it did a few seconds ago. After dispatching them, Electro taunts Spidey and starts fleeing. We get to see some real good looking web swinging which ends in Spiderman running up what looks like a massive elevator shaft so he can meet Electro and the gang on the roof.
At this point it’s just a cutscene where several baddies all team up on Spiderman and beat the living shit out of him. It ends with a cliffhanger of Spiderman on the ground in pain, looking up and saying something to the effect of “you?!” Then a quick fade to black and that’s it.
The show is now over and we cut back to the place where the intermission took place. Cool.
Overall, this was a bizarre conference that didn’t really surprise me that much outside of seeing some of that Ghosts of Tsushima.
After the annual Just Dance live performance, we got a trailer that served as a tone piece for what to expect from BG&E2. Lot’s of surly anthropomorphic animals flying ships as well as cooking were on display. Of course, tragedy strikes when the spaceship they’re on is under attack by a gigantic monster spaceship. This is when they reveal that the first game’s protagonist, Jade, is what looks to be the big bad villain here.
We then get some developers talking us through the basic setup of the game and introducing the characters that will be in this poorly titled prequel. That aside, it was time for some gameplay. A massive city is on display that you can fly through in your own spaceship and exit at anytime to go beat the shit out enemies. It was pretty ambiguous honestly, but it looked really cool. They also said there was coop, so that’s awesome.
Then Joseph Gordon Levitt came out on stage and asked people to submit their artwork, music and writing to be possibly put in the game. There was no mention of compensation on stage, but he clarified that there would be payment, on his Twitter.
Trials Rising
At long last, a new Trials game is upon us, and I could not be happier. In classic Trials style, it seems like it’s going to be just as frustrating and fun as the previous entries. There was a shot of what looked like 8 people riding bikes on the same screen at the same time. So that seems like it could be a chaotic blast.
Shortly after this trailer, we learned that there is a beta you can sign up for, and the full game is slated for release in February of 2019.
The Division 2
The Division 2 was shown again, but not before we got a really dour speech about how the events of The Division came to be. Nothing says fun like Small Pox.
But we got a new trailer, once again it’s a tone piece. We see shots of people living well inside compounds, then some less than friendly behavior outside the gates; people being robbed, in hiding, or being executed. Then we see 3 nondescript Division soldiers walking down a mountain. But suddenly it’s time for another dour speech that tries to be inspiring about hope and bringing the right equipment and tactical abilities to Washington D.C.
But let’s talk about the game structure. Raids are going to be in The Division 2 featuring up to 8 player coop to tackle these much more difficult missions. They also went ahead and plotted out their DLC structure, stating all three of the first year updates and content drops will be free.
Now a gameplay trailer that opens with some upside down American flags and people shooting at other people. Once again, nothing terribly new on display, but there’s a beta to sign up for, and it’ll be released March of 2019.
Skull & Bones
Skull & Bones was next game that was shown that followed the trend of showing a tone piece trailer, having a developer come out and explain things, and then showing some gameplay.
I never enjoyed the Assassins Creed boat stuff that this game is inspired by, it just never did anything for me. So it’s tough for me to muster any real excitement for this game. Looks like you’ll be heading to a hub area to buy upgrades for most of the equipment on your ship, then setting sail. We see the player pirate ship flying a fake flag to fool the sea cops before moving to intercept a convoy carrying some hot booty. Enough damage was done to the other ships that the player was able to board them and plunder them.
Oh no, a high level enemy is in the distance, luckily there’s multiplayer to help us out with that problem. Other players have joined the fray launching all forms of cannon fire at this large, evil galleon.
It’s right here that I realize we’ve spent way more time on this than I cared to see.
The big evil galleon is sunk, and unsurprisingly all the other pirate ships have turned on each other and attacked one another. Cut to black, and we’re done. You can sign up for the beta or wait for the 2019 release.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
As cool as AC: Odyssey looks, I’m genuinely disappointed that we’re back to getting another of these so quickly after Origins. While it isn’t like they just re-skinned Origins with a coat of Greek paint, it just feels a little soon in my opinion.
Aside from my personal feelings about the game, it looks actually pretty interesting. A large focus on RPG elements with dialogue options and choosing your player character. It seems like the natural progression of where Assassin’s Creed needs to go and I’m all for it. There also appeared to be a romantic options you could explore, at least that’s what I gathered from the “heart” icon next to one of the dialogue choices.
We didn’t shake the annoying “walk and talk” segments from previous AC games, but this one seems to have shortened it. They also kept the Phylakes style roaming mercenaries hunting you down on the map stuff from Origins. A feature I didn’t much care for, but others seemed to enjoy. There also are larger scale battles on display here which look like a nice change of pace.
All things considered it looks really neat and I’m curious in checking it out when it arrives on October 5th of this year.
There was no mention of Splinter Cell. I am the saddest man.
The Final Fantasy VII remake is totally real. Please believe us.
Shadow of The Tomb Raider
The show opened with a short sequence of a plane crashing which probably isn’t a great time for Lara Croft. After that we cut to gameplay of Lara hiding in a tree and shooting a poisonous arrow at a guy that made him lose his mind before he ultimately died. We then see her perform some takedowns on unsuspecting dudes before slathering herself in mud to blend into the environment. All of what we’re seeing here is stealth gameplay until Lara leaps out from the bushes to stab a dude in the face. Somehow she escapes that situation unnoticed, only for her to throw an ignited gas canister on top of three dudes so she can watch them burn alive.
It looked pretty cool, but aside from some mud-rubbin’ I didn’t really see much that differentiates it from its predecessors. Still, I like this series well enough to check it out when it releases later this year.
The Awesome Adventures Of Captain Spirit
We saw some of this at Microsoft’s briefing, but we got a different look at it here. We are quickly reminded that this isn’t Life is Strange 2, but an introduction to the world of Life is Strange. It seems to build upon the idea that based on whatever adventure this kid imagines in his mind, you’ll get a new gameplay experience. Whereas Life is Strange was built around rewinding time, this looks like it will allow for the player play with different kinds of mechanics based on the adventure. But that’s just my best guess.
We’ll find out on June 26th when it releases for free.
Baylon’s Fall
It’s a Platinum game about slashing through some sort of medieval styled world. Not much stood out to me here outside of the fact it looked like a Bayonetta game with an illusion to 4 player coop right at the end. So it could be cool, but there’s not much to go on right now.
Just Cause 4
Taking place in South America, once again Rico Rodriguez is sent in to fight an oppressive regime and tornadoes. There are claims that weather is going to be the big defining characteristic in this entry, blizzards and tornadoes being the highlights. Also in addition to the rocket boosters and grappling hooks, you’ll get these cool balloons you can attach to things so you can make your enemies just slowly float away. Looks pretty awesome, but we’ll see if it pans out.
What appeared to be an actual video of a man walking into an alley and getting heckled by stereotypical gang members, made a weird transition into gameplay of him brawling with them and kicking their asses. Also he’s deaf. Could this be The Bouncer sequel we’ve all been waiting for? Perhaps. We’ll learn more in August.
Then the conference just ended. No mention of their Avengers project, no mention of the Final Fantasy VII remake, and the same incomprehensible Kingdom Hearts III trailer from the Microsoft briefing yesterday.
We’re not mad at Wal Mart for leaking RAGE 2, we’re just disappointed.
RAGE 2
They brought out Andrew WK for this. There was no gameplay or trailer at first, just Andrew WK and his band playing the trailer song. Then the stream kept cutting to these people who were mildly disapproving of his music. After the one song concert, two directors on RAGE 2 came out and decided to actually show the game. But not before the longest five minutes of awkward conversation ever.
The game itself looks pretty neat. The first big bullet point was “If you see it, you can drive it”, which was an odd thing for them to lead with. But it looked like Avalanche expanded on the car combat stuff from the Mad Max game they put out a few years back. The gun play looked frantic and fast paced will some cool abilities on display.
The whole thing has an aesthetic and are leaning into it super hard. It’s over-the-top in a way that I’m definitely into. It’ll be available in Spring 2018.
DOOM Eternal
The sequel to the amazing 2016 Doom reboot arrives with an odd name, but it’s more Doom, so I’m in. No additional information was given, but we were told at Quakecon this year we would see more of it. From the look of things though, I’d say that hell has come to Earth, and we’re pretty fucked.
Fallout 76
Todd Howard walked out and did a few minutes of his rehearsed standup routine about E3. He killed that room. Then they decided to make a joke about porting Skyrim to the Amazon Alexa. I thought it was very well done. Keegan Michael Key was in it, and he was very funny.
But then it was time for Fallout 76. Set in the hills of West Virginia, you are among the first to tame this land. That’s more or less what he said. At this point I’ve seen a version of this Fallout 76 trailer 3 times. This trailer in particular was the exact same one they showed at the Microsoft event earlier today.
Finally we’ve arrived at gameplay. The staples of Fallout are on display, there’s a Pip-Boy, a floating robot, a vault and you leaving it. After boasting the graphical fidelity of their world, they went to off to highlight some new enemies and nightmare creatures you’ll fight on your journey.
At this point they dropped the multiplayer bombshell and announced that it is “entirely online.” They address some questions right off the bat. Of course you can go it solo and experience the story and world on your own. Then they emphasized that it is an open world survival game that wont have massive player counts to help it feel like you’re still in an apocalypse. You keep your progress and dying doesn’t cost you anything significant which is good news.
We now see some cooperative gameplay mostly of people shooting stuff, but also emoting at each other and playing instruments together. Oh also you can build shit. Yeah, they blew out that building system from Fallout 4 so you can build a base camp and customize it with all the atomic garbage your heart desires. You and your friends can build settlements which various creatures can come and fuck up from time to time should they please. After killing said creatures, you can pop into a photo mode together and memorialize the moment forever.
Oh, also, there’s just fucking nuclear missile sites you can go to and activate. You’ll have to clear out a silo, collect various nuclear codes, and then you can launch a whole nuke at some other players if you want.
Now that we’ve got the gameplay out of the way. They announced a beta that at the moment of writing this, I don’t know if you can actually sign up for because as you’d expect, the site isn’t handling the entire load of the internet too well. And now for a weird pivot to the cool ways you can pay for this game. You can buy yourself a version of this game that comes with a glow in the dark map and a power suit helmet you can wear if you really feel like it.
Fallout 76 comes out this year on November 14th, 2018.
The Elder Scrolls Blades
What happens if you take the Elder Scrolls and put it on a phone with Infinity Blade style Combat? You get what looks like a fairly robust Elder Scrolls game that you can take with you. Battery devouring aside, it genuinely looks impressive for what it is. I almost typed out that I wasn’t sure who would play this game, but then I remembered it’s an Elder Scrolls game and the internet exists. With a full story, a variety of modes and some social elements that remind me of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, this looks like a neat game. It’s free to play, but you can pre-order it for reasons.
Starfield
“And one more thing…” The classic E3 moment lives on with a teaser of the first new property Bethesda has created in 25 years, called Starfield. It was just a video clip of a planet, so who knows what that is. But it’ll be a while till we find out. My guess is it’s gonna be a Bethesda RPG, but in space. Bold prediction, I know.
The Elder Scrolls VI
“And one more other thing…” They showed a large mass of land with the text “The Elder Scrolls VI” and received a standing ovation. “We’re working on it, so please shut the hell up already.” TES VI is slated for release after Starfield, so who’s to say if it will even be on the current generation of consoles and hardware.
Grab your game passes and get your asses in line, cause it’s Microsoft time.
Halo Infinite
No real info given outside of a trailer. Seems as if they’re launching a platform for Halo as well as a campaign. It’s unclear as to what makes this different enough to not call it Halo 6, but I’m definitely intrigued.
Ori & The Will of the Wisps
Following up the tremendous Ori & The Blind Forest is something that very much appears like its predecessor with enhanced combat and more mobility options. Not much info was given here aside from a general tone piece and some gameplay.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Initially I thought this was a Dark Souls-esque re-imagining of the Tenchu series. While I wasn’t too far off, it has a different name and seem to have more exploration and mobility options. Here we have something that invokes Bloodborne and God of War. Time will tell if it’s as gross as those games, but it definitely is trying.
Fallout 76
It appears all the rumors were true and this is prequel to all other games. It’s said to be 4 times the size of Fallout 4 and is a base building focused multiplayer game. No surprises here. More to come when we see it at the Bethesda Briefing.
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
This is billed as a story in the same universe of Life is Strange, but not featuring the same characters. With a focus on a young boy and his imagination, it looks like you’ll be seeing a bunch of fantastical stories with different settings, featuring him. It’s releasing for free on June 26th.
Crackdown 3
Terry Crews is yelling a lot, while a virtual Terry Crews is blowing shit up, and driving up walls. Nothing else really revealed. Allegedly releasing early next year.
We Happy Few
We Happy Few seems to have pivoted from its survival roots and has become more story focused. It shares a weird vibe with the Bioshock series which isn’t a bad thing. I personally prefer this approach to their original pitch, but I don’t think I’m breaking any new ground with that one. It’s out on August 10th.
The Division 2
They’re going for it with the setting and story. Shit went real bad in Washington DC apparently. It looks really good graphically but didn’t do much to differentiate itself from the original. From what I gather the end of the trailer sets up the idea that you and your friends can storm other player run bases.
ID@Xbox
This was just one of those classic “indie game montages.” I went ahead and picked out the games that looked interesting.
Afterparty
Outerwilds
Below
Conquerors Blade
Raji
Planet Alpha
Islands of Nine
Harold Halibut
The Wind Road
Ashen
Sable
Shadow of The Tomb Raider
What else can I say about this game? If you liked the previous games or the Uncharted series, this is probably a safe bet as far as games you’ll enjoy. If it builds upon the already rock solid formula of its predecessors, we’ll be in for another fantastic entry in the series.
Session.
Totally got my hopes up for Skate 4. But where EA refuses to deliver, smaller studios will step in. That’s what’s happening with Session. I’ve played the very early demo they put out a while ago and I wasn’t terribly impressed. Hopefully there have been big improvements since I’ve played it and it will fill that skateboard shaped hole in my heart.
Tunic
This game still looks out of this fucking world. It’s a Zelda-esque, isometric action-adventure game that looks charming as all hell. I humbly request that Tunic is released this moment.
Dying Light 2
More parkour, more zombies. Actually they really didn’t show any zombies, there was way more human drama. I prefer the focus on the people rather than the zombies, honestly. There’s a big focus on player choice, for example they showed dialogue options that effect your standing with various factions, which in turn, effect the world and missions you do.
Battletoads
No footage to show, but it has 3 player co-op. So yeah.
Just Cause 4
It’s Just Cause. You know what this game is. It might as well be called “Grappling Hooks and Explosions” at this point. It looked pretty neat, although then again, so did JC3. They showed a tornado, so that could be fun.
Gears Pop!
What if Gears of war, but Funko Pop and on phones? Huh? I guess that’s what this is. God help us all.
Gears Tactics
Looks like a tower defense, X-Com looking game. They really breezed through this announcement.
Gears 5
No “of War” on these games. It’s perplexing. They’re really leaning into the story with this trailer, and as someone who has not finished Gears of War 4, I have no idea what’s going on. But it looks like a personal journey featuring the lady from Gears of War 4. It looks nice and has cover shooting.
Cyberpunk 2077
I wasn’t a huge fan of The Witcher 3 mostly because of its setting. Cyberpunk 2077 seems to be everything I wanted out of the Witcher, but with more guns and neon. Sign me the hell up.
According to the loot tables, this conference only comes out once a year!
BATTLEFIELD V
They opened up the show with Battlefield V, which by all accounts was one of the more interesting things at the EA briefing today. There was a big emphasis on destruction and mobility. A lot of houses getting bowled over by tanks while other tanks were towing mounted guns around.
EA made a point to say that this was their vision of World War 2. Basically a final clarification to the people complaining about historical accuracy on the internet. Being the first game shown, Battlefield V started the trend of touting “no lootboxes” throughout the presentation.
I also get the impression that there will be some focus on building things in the multiplayer. There was a shot of someone holding a hammer, followed by soldiers stacking sandbags, which was followed by a tank hitching up a mounted gun and driving away with it. That might be a reach though.
Also there’s a battle royale mode, because it’s 2018.
Origin Access Premier
It seems like some sort of hybrid game streaming service that incorporates the existing Origin Access games and subscription. It invokes the Xbox Game Pass in some ways, especially with them saying it will include all PC EA games going forward.
Actual in engine render of Jedi: Fallen Order.
Jedi: Fallen Order
A wild Vince Zampella (Head of Respawn) was spotted in the crowd and gave some vague details about their upcoming Star Wars game, called Jedi: Fallen Order. No details aside from it taking place between episode 3 and 4 were given, except for Zampella emphasizing it was the “Dark Times” and it would release in Holiday of 2019.
Star Wars Battlefront II
Battlefront II was brought out on stage again to mostly apologize for the loot boxes debacle and to explain that they have improved that system greatly. That was followed by the announcement of some new modes, both competitive and cooperative, as well as announcing that future content will revolve around the Solo movie as well as the Clone Wars era. Now we can all act out our favorite moments from the Clone Wars, when we get to play as General Grevious.
Unravel Two
Unravel Two is deliberately spelled out rather than numbered, because its a cooperative game now. You play as 2 yarn boys who use each other to solve puzzles in this gorgeous world. The experience can be played solo, or via drop in coop. Also, it’s out right now for $19.99.
Sea of Solitude (SOS)
Continuing the trend of having very excited and earnest indie developers on stage, EA introduced us to Sea of Solitude. SOS as they intentionally refer to it, is a game about balancing your emotions, both good and bad. Also it’s about helping a girl transform back into a human because she got too lonely and turned into a monster the way all humans do. It is slated to be available early 2019.
Command & Conquer Rivals
EA brought out the Shoutcasters and had them commentate over a game of Command & Conquer Rivals, a mobile game that looks to speed up and simplify the C&C experience. I’ve never been a C&C guy, but this seemed interesting for what it was. A “pre-alpha” version of it is available now on Android, with a full release coming to iOS as well sometime in the near future.
Talking Points
Right before we dipped into the Anthem experience, we took a moment to hear about how EA values you, your time, your money and your gaming experiences. They followed that with an apology for their bad monetization practices, and hard pivoted to the Play to Give Foundation which promotes exclusivity and acceptance in gaming spaces. They donated a million dollars want you to know that.
Anthem
So this Anthem presentation was weird. It was more or less a round table discussion about each of the core aspects of Anthem. They explained their design process as well as story stuff and mechanics, but did it while the same 4 clips of gameplay kept looping over and over with repeating shots of concept art sprinkled in for good measure. It had me really worried that they had nothing to show on Anthem.
There was a weird moment where they basically called out Destiny, claiming that other games in a similar vein dropped the ball on the story experience. Then came a totally real, Q&A segment with questions from Twitter. One question asked about customizing your appearance. The answer was obviously a yes. The next was about loot boxes and micro-transactions. There will be no loot boxes, and you’ll always know what you’re paying for. So paying for cosmetics is almost a guarantee. Up till right about here, this Anthem presentation was insufferably dull.
Then they showed some gameplay of the classes and gun play. There are some neat abilities and weapons that were on display, but the core loop of the game is you shoot things to make numbers pop out of them. There’s a combo system that appears to inflict more damage when players use powers correctly simultaneously, and a lot of flying around like Iron Man. You have the equivalent of a ghost, he is British and snarky. Aside from that, they once again emphasized the story by saying if you’re a solo player, you’ll have a lot to experience here, but it might be a bit more challenging.
This year I decided to do something different for covering E3. Normally I’d just sit on Twitter and make snarky comments about everything that’s shown, but why focus on Twitter when I have a website I could inundate with my words?
I’m going to try and highlight the things that I’m interested in or that are so glaringly bizarre that not writing something about them would be insane. So don’t expect comprehensive coverage, I don’t have the time nor the resources for that. And quite frankly, that’s boring, there are dozens of other places doing that.
So that’s the weird way we’re doing things here at The Bonus World.
The Bonus World 