Tag Archives: E3 2021

E3 2021: What’s Looking Good, Everyone Else?

It’s hard to tell where Summer Game Fest began and E3 ended but some combination of those events took place over the past few days, so instead of trying to make heads or tails of the schedule I just figured I’d plop all of my miscellaneous conference highlights here. Sure we had big presentations from Microsoft and Nintendo, but a couple of smaller events bolstered the show by just announcing a deluge of games.

These announcements are only a small slice of the things that were shown in their respective digital events, which is my way of saying that this isn’t in any way a comprehensive list. I’ve broken the announcements down by which conference they were a part of, and not in any sort of ranked order. Enough caveats though, let’s dive in.

The first “conference” that I’m going to highlight games from is the Wholesome Direct, where chill vibes and good feelings were prioritized over the likes of guns and boobs or whatever. These titles are all very relaxed or peaceful, so consider that as we look at some games that are cozy as ~~hell~~…heck.

A LITTLE TO THE LEFT

Described as a “cozy puzzle game” about organization, A Little to the Left is supremely the kind of shit that I’m into. It’s colorful and charming, and seems incredibly chill. Also, it scratches that “mundane activity game” itch that I apparently always have, so that’s good. It’s planned to release on October 21st of this year.

BEHIND THE FRAME

I thoroughly enjoy the idea of using art to solve puzzles, and Behind the Frame looks like a game that will do just that. One could easily look at this game and call it a voyeurism simulator which in all fairness, it might be. I’m digging the art style and the general conceit of the game, but whether it all comes together in a cohesive fashion while telling a good story remains to be seen. It’s scheduled for a September 2021 release.

LAKE

Lake feels like one of those games that’s going to try and shatter me on an emotional level. Sure it may just look like a game about being a woman who returns to her hometown to take a break from her fast-paced city life, but I bet there’s going to be a lot of coming to terms with life in said small town that’s going to make me get real introspective. Those messages really resonate with me regardless of the medium of storytelling, so I’m fully expecting this to either destroy me, or literally miss the mark entirely. While no firm date is given, Lake will apparently release this year.

BUTTON CITY

Look at this game and soak in its borderline offensive levels of adorableness. I’m in love with the art style and music that’s on display in Button City, but I genuinely have no clue what the actual game is like. I’m guessing it’s an adventure game with some arcade-inspired mini-games, and that is very exciting to me. I look forward to trying it when it releases on September 12th of this year.

THE GECKO GODS

A puzzle-platformer where I play as a gecko? You can go ahead and add that to the list of things I never thought I’d say let alone want to play, until now that is. The Gecko Gods looks incredibly rad from top to bottom, although my only concern is how good it actually feels to move around and interact with the world as a gecko, but only time will tell if that concern is valid or not. It’s planned to release sometime in 2022.

PASSPARTOUT 2: THE LOST ARTIST

While not the deepest game I’ve ever played, Passpartout was an incredibly neat idea for a game that had it had a little more meat on its bones, I probably would’ve championed more when it came out. But apparently a sequel is on its way, and I’m more than willing to give this next installment a shot. I look forward to selling my shitty artwork to people who would rather call me avant-garde than actually critique my work. I just wish that I was able to pull off this exact scam in real life. I couldn’t find a release window for this game, but it’ll get here when it gets here.

UNPACKING

Hell yes, add it to the pile. Unpacking is another super chill looking organization-based puzzle game that I’m so here for. The music and the art seem to work in wonderful concert, all in service of providing the chillest vibes imaginable, and lord knows I could use more chill vibes these days. It’s planned to release at some point this year.

SOUP POT

I do love me a good cooking game, but since Cooking Mama decided to go the way of the dodo it’s been up to games like Soup Pot to fill the void. I’m excited for the chill vibes and all, but I’m also excited to check out a bunch of recipes from plenty of regions that I’ve never encountered before. Also, there aren’t any fail states in this game, so I don’t have to worry about burning my apartment down while making these recipes which is always a welcome bonus. Slated for August of 2021, I won’t have to wait much longer to play Soup Pot.

MOONGLOW BAY

There’s a voxel raccoon in this trailer which makes me incredibly happy to see because there just isn’t enough of that in games these days. But I guess Moonglow Bay has other stuff going on with it too. You are the bravest fisher in all of the titular bay and are tasked with reinvigorating the economy through fishing and cooking, while everyone else ostensibly cowers in fear of the monsters that occupy local legend. Seems cool and all, but that raccoon is mostly why I’m playing. It’s probably the main character too. I’ll get to chill with that raccoon at some point this year too.

PUPPERAZZI

The game is fucking called Pupperazzi, like what else do you want to know? It’s Pokemon Snap if it was about taking pictures of dogs, which I cannot believe doesn’t exist yet. Thank goodness that this game is coming soon because I need this exact sort of heat in my life, especially after bouncing off of the kind of underwhelming New Pokemon Snap. On Steam, the release date is listed as “woof bark bark,” so that might mean it’s coming soon, but I’m not as fluent in dog as I’d like to admit

VENBA

Family drama and cooking? I’m all about Venba and whatever it’s setting out to do. I don’t know anything about the game outside of what’s in the trailer but from what I can glean from it, it is absolutely the kind of game I would play. There sure are a lot of games that have great art styles, seemingly poignant stories, and some sort of cooking mini-games in them, aren’t there? Oh well, I’m game for Venba when it comes out this November.

Below is everything I found that was particularly interesting from the Guerrilla Collective Day 2 presentation. Please note that this Guerrilla is not affiliated with the Guerrilla Games studio behind games like Horizon: Zero Dawn and the Killzone franchise, which is something I had to look up to confirm. It makes sense, right? How would that even make sense? Anyway, here’s some more cool looking games.

AKATORI

Not only am I drawn to Akatori because of its great stylistic choices, but the combat itself looks fast and frenetic in a way that I’m drawn to. I feel as if it’s pretty hard for a pixelated 2D game to stand out these days thanks to the sheer number of them, but Akatori is speaking to me in a way that very few of these games do. Akatori is slated to release at some point in 2022.

ARCADE PARADISE

Arcade Mania looks like the kind of management game I can get into. While the term “management games” can illicit a certain sort of image in your mind, this one seems a lot more hands on and systems light in a way that I can get into. I really like the core gameplay loop on display here along with the general theme of the game itself. Setting high scores in order to wring more cash out of score-chasing consumers sounds like a blast. Arcade Paradise is allegedly releasing at some point this year.

FIREGIRL

There aren’t enough firefighting games out there which says to me that the gaming industry at large is fucking up quite severely. Luckily it looks like Firegirl is gonna do me up right and let me put out fires and save civilians in the most ridiculous and over the top way possible. There’s a part of me that really enjoys the farfetched nature of the game, but there’s also a weird part of me that wouldn’t have minded a slightly more realistic take on firefighting. It’s hard to judge from the trailer though, hopefully the final product will strike the right balance for me, when it releases sometime this fall.

ROBODUNK

You look at this trailer and tell me that I’m wrong for thinking it looks dope as hell. You can’t because Robodunk looks objectively cool. I’m into this wild robotic take on NBA JAM and hope to high hell that it actually plays as well as it presents itself. I also hope it’s the kind of game that can stand on its own without the need for other players, but that one might be a bigger ask. With no concrete release date or window to speak of, there’s no telling when I’ll be able to play Robodunk.

VENICE 2089

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjde3ISB-mk

Why yes, I would love to hover-board my way through a climate change stricken Venice in the not so distant future. Thanks for asking. I’m all about these hopeful takes on dire situations, because while we will fuck this planet to the core via climate change, it’s very optimistic to believe that we’ll have hover-boards. I think Venice 2089 looks rad and is trying to tell a story that I personally haven’t seen in a video game before, all of which makes me very eager to try this one out. With no release date however, who knows when I’ll actually get to play it.

WHITE SHADOWS

In the trailer above, one of the designers of White Shadows describes it as less of a puzzle-platformer and more of a trip through a black and white dystopic city. That description is actually a pretty big relief to me because this game could have easily been a spooky game that I wouldn’t want to play, but instead I get to marvel at the ultra stylistic art without worrying if some monstrosity is going to try and make me piss myself. I look forward to not pissing myself on September 10th this year, when White Shadows releases.

And finally we arrive at the Future Games Show, the last of the conferences that I dug through to find games worth mentioning. This show may have been the lightest of the three in terms of games that resonated with me, but hey, not everything is made for my sensibilities and that’s okay… for now.

ESPORTS BOXING CLUB

Boxing is back, baby! Unfortunately it’s coming in with a pretty miserable name like Esports Boxing Club, but I can look past that if the game itself holds up. I feel like no one is making boxing games these days which is a damn shame, because those Fight Night games back in the day were really fun to play, even if you were like me and knew nothing about boxing. Here in 2021 however, I still know nothing about boxing, so everything is the same except I’m older now. Anyway, the boxing game looks cool and I wanna see the men fall down a bunch. Allegedly this game is planned to release into early access at some point this summer.

HAROLD HALIBUT

Look at this beautiful game. Really soak it in. Harold Halibut looks like a really interesting adventure game with some clever little mini-games sprinkled throughout that I would very much like to play as soon as possible. I think the world seems like a really interesting place I want to get know and explore, while the characters look pretty diverse and hopefully are backed by a quality script that does them justice. The weirdest part about looking this game up however, is Google is convinced that it came out in 2019, which I don’t think is the case. I have no idea when it’s coming out for real however.

OLLIOLLI WORLD

The first two OlliOlli games were these very stylish and fun 2D skateboarding games, that were fun little diversions in my mind. I was never head over heels for the series, but I maintain that they are supremely fun in their own right and deserve to be celebrated. That being said, OlliOlli World looks to build upon just about everything from the originals, 3D-ify them, and let them loose in an open world. That all sounds great to me quite honestly, and I am very much looking forward to do many McTwists in the future when OlliOlli World releases later this year.

TWO POINT CAMPUS

The follow up to 2018’s Two Point Hospital comes in the form of Two Point Campus, a very silly university management game in vein of the Theme games from the 90’s, like Theme Hospital and Theme Park. From just a thematic stance, I think I’ll enjoy running a goofy school much more than running a goofy hospital thanks to the trauma of still paying off a medical bill from 2016, but I’m willing to be that people with student loans probably will have a similar reaction to Two Point Campus when it comes out in 2022.

CONWAY: DISAPPEARANCE AT DAHLIA VIEW

And for our final game we have Conway: Disappearance at Dahlia View, a gritty-looking detective thriller set in England during the 1950s. Despite the painfully long and difficult to remember name of the game, I feel like there’s an excellent story lurking somewhere in there, and I am eager to experience it. Hopefully the gameplay side of things holds up its end of the bargain, but I guess I’ll find out later this year when it releases.

Wow gang, that was a lot of games that I had to barely write anything about and I’m already exhausted. I hope there was something in this article you came away with a newfound interest in, but regardless of if you did or didn’t, you should really look into all the games announced across both Game Fest and E3. because there’s a lot I did not include here.

With the world trying to get back up to speed with everything after last year, one thing was extremely evident: While AAA studios suffered big losses in terms of planned products slipping past their release dates, indie development seemed mostly unaffected. It makes sense that these smaller teams were seemingly less impacted by having to work at home and collaborate with their teams virtually than their AAA counterparts, because they’ve probably been developing games under these conditions the entire time. Indies really made the show and in a lot of cases, upstaged the bigger studios who didn’t know how to handle the transition, so a well deserved kudos to them.

Anyway, that’s going to do it for The Bonus World’s E3 2021 “coverage.” I know it was pretty light this year, but I think this struck a good balance for me in terms of my work load and just life in general. Thanks for the constant support, and thanks for taking the time to check out our handful of articles.

E3 2021: What’s Looking Good, Nintendo?

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Even though it’s been a few days since E3 2021 actually wrapped up and our collective consciousness is rapidly moving away from the event itself, there’s still a lot to say about what we saw on display. Today’s subject is none other than the purveyors of the plumber, the masters of the mustache, Nintendo.

It sure feels like every year people have their long lists of Nintendo “dream announcements” that never actually get fulfilled, and this year didn’t do much to allay that perception. Notably Nintendo didn’t talk about their long rumored new Switch model, nor did they talk about long awaited games like Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4, or even games they announced last year such as Splatoon 3. Nintendo remains an enigma to me, but there was still some stuff they touched on that I’d love to highlight.

One thing I want to mention upfront is how weird it was to see literally nothing in the way of Animal Crossing: New Horizons content. I feel like the player base of that game, myself included, have been clamoring for something new or interesting to come along so that we can have a reason to return to our, undoubtedly overgrown islands. But it’s starting to feel more and more like Nintendo had no real plan in place for supporting Animal Crossing beyond its first year, so I hope y’all like Bunny Day, cause that’s all we’re gonna get apparently.

SUPER MONKEY BALL BANANA MANIA

It has been way too long since we’ve gotten a proper Monkey Ball game, and while we’re not actually getting a new one, we are getting this pack of the first three console games in the series: Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2, and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe. Now I have very little experience with the series because I never actually owned a Gamecube, but Super Monkey Ball was definitely one of the few games I saw on that console that made me really want that little purple lunchbox with the terrible controller.

I’m glad to see Monkey Ball return in some fashion though. Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania comes out this year on October 5th and according to some retailers, the package is listed at $39.99 which is probably the most I’d consider paying for this collection if we’re being honest. I’m actually surprised it isn’t more, but considering it is a SEGA property maybe that’s why the price is more palatable. We literally saw Nintendo do this not too long ago with the Super Mario 3D All-Stars bundle, where they charged full price for a collection of ports of “classic” 3D Mario titles. Speaking of Nintendo severely overvaluing their products…

MARIO PARTY SUPERSTARS

I really don’t actually give a damn about Mario Party or any of its many iterations, but Mario Party Superstars is probably the smartest move they could make with this miserable series. With remastered “classic” maps and mini-games, along with online play right out of the box, I think this is the way to properly capitalize on the misguided nostalgia people have for this series. Curiously however, there’s also online matchmaking which sounds like a good idea in theory, but man, I already don’t want to play Mario Party to begin with, but doing it with random strangers seems even worse somehow.

Incredibly, Nintendo is going to be charging the full sixty bucks for this one when it drops on October 29th of this year.

METROID DREAD

I’ve never been the biggest Metroid fan, but I’ve enjoyed a couple of the iterations that have come out over the years. I’ve never messed with the Prime trilogy, but I’ve dabbled with the original Metroid, Super Metroid and I think maybe I played a bit of Metroid Fusion, but I might just be imagining that last one. My point is that I’m way more onboard for a new 2D Metroid game than I am for Metroid Prime 4, a game that might never come out.

I suppose my biggest question is what genre of game we attribute Metroid Dread to, because it seems silly to classify a Metroid game as a Metroidvania, but like, it’s right there in the title. See these are the big questions I’m willing to waste a paragraph on as well as your precious attention span.

It has been a while though since I’ve actually strapped on my Varia suit and rolled up into a little bomb-dropping ball, but I think I can get my sea legs back in time for Metroid Dread‘s release later this year on October 8th. Damn Nintendo, you’re really stacking releases in October, huh?

WARIOWARE GET IT TOGETHER

Hell yes, now we’re talking. The last time I played a WarioWare game was when I was still in high school when the Wii was out there conquering the world, and WarioWare Smooth Moves had just come out. I don’t know if it was a good WarioWare game or not, but I do remember enjoying it quite thoroughly. It’s unfortunate though because the series mostly lived on handhelds, which is just not how I play video games. So the series mostly passed me by, but that dry spell ends this year.

I don’t know how I feel about the main conceit of controlling a little avatar that goes on screen and interacts with the micro-games using their unique abilities, but WarioWare was a series that always had a new hook from game to game, so I’m not surprised they went with a new gimmick this time around. It’s not surprising they went this angle however, considering they wanted to make a cooperative focused game that utilizes the unique aspects of the Nintendo Switch, namely, two people controlling the game simultaneously with a Joy-Con apiece. Hopefully it lives up to the legacy of the series, but we won’t know for sure until it drops later this year on September 9th.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD 2

I’ll admit that when Nintendo went to conclude their Direct by showing off Hyrule Warriors DLC, I turned the thing off entirely and moved on with my life. Little did I know, Link and his cool new hair were gonna be on display shortly after that deflating announcement. Now look, I loved the first Breath of the Wild, it was one of my favorite games of 2017 after all. I just hope that this sequel builds on the right aspects of its predecessor while ditching the shittier parts of the original. Namely, if they could maybe get rid of weapon degradation, that would just be so cool.

I know that weapon degradation is kind of a low-hanging fruit when it comes to criticism about Breath of the Wild, but in what I might consider the best Zelda game of all time, it really stuck out as an unnecessary pressure point. I’m not here to backseat develop, but that part of the game is what genuinely keeps me from wanting to revisit it.

While the trailer showed off some new powers, weapons and Link’s cool new hairdo, it was only a tease of what we might see later in the year or whenever they decide to show off more of the game. I personally would like to see a little more life out of the world this time around, like cities and such, along with some actual dungeons as opposed to the lackluster ones we saw in Breath of the Wild. Who knows what the final product will actually be like, but the fact that they’re building off of Breath of the Wild fills me with a lot of confidence that at the very least, I’ll get another game that’s at least as good as the original. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will get a real name at some point that we’ll learn before it releases sometime in 2022.

I feel like every year the same conversation happens around the Nintendo Switch and its lineup. At the beginning of the year we lament the lack of confirmed releases for the holiday season, and then E3 happens and we all get put in our collective places. I’m pretty relieved that there wasn’t a new Switch model announced as well because Nintendo is terrible when it comes to utilizing their new hardware iterations, like that 3DS that came with the little nubbin’ second analog stick that I think like 2 games utilized. I also just don’t trust Nintendo to properly support two consoles at the same time, considering that even in 2021 we’re still out here using friend codes and trying to do voice chat in the most convoluted way possible.

But yeah, that’s what I saw from the Nintendo Direct that resonated with me in some fashion. I usually don’t have to worry too much about the quality of Nintendo games, but there’s always the chance that these games could turn out to be real stinkers. Here’s hoping that isn’t the case though.

E3 2021: What’s Looking Good, Microsoft?

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We should begin by laying out some facts right off the bat and acknowledge a few truths about the current situation as it applies to the video game industry, but more specifically E3 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic really hampered so much development by forcing it out of the collaborative spaces of offices and into peoples homes. It also severely disrupted supply lines and manufacturing pipelines to such a degree that every electronics company is grappling with component shortages. Also worth considering is the fact that E3 is a show that’s been desperately searching for an identity for quite some time now, only to really feel the pressure after not having a conference at all last year. Knowing all of that led me to believe that I should temper my expectations for this year, but despite the middling status of E3 as a show, some of the presenters brought some really interesting stuff that I’m actually pretty excited for.

Keep in mind, I don’t really have much of a structure or rule set in mind for how I’m picking these, but I’m going to try and focus on games that were more than a cinematic trailer. No offense to cinematic trailers, but there isn’t really much to talk about with those when compared to games that showed off some actual gameplay footage. So don’t get weird about it when I don’t mention Starfield or whatever. But anyway, here’s what I saw at the Microsoft press conference (are we still calling them that?) from E3 2021 that really piqued my interest.

BATTLEFIELD 2042

It’s been a while since I’ve actually enjoyed a Battlefield game, with Battlefield 3 being the last one that really resonated with me. But before my decline in interest with the series really took hold, I thoroughly enjoyed games like Battlefied 2, Battlefield 2142, and even Battlefield 1943, which doesn’t even mention my fondness for the Bad Company spin-offs. But here we are, staring down the barrel of the Battlefield gun once again, and while I don’t recall anything demonstrably new or revolutionary about this latest entry, I’m intrigued by the footage that seemed to focus in on map hazards like snowstorms, dust storms, and tornadoes. It looks like it could be a cool inclusion in these massive battles, granted it doesn’t become overly tedious after encountering these events a couple of times.

I don’t really know what to expect from Battlefield 2042 except for the fact that there will not be a single player component, which might make it a tricky sell for some folks. Hopefully this Battlefield entry is more welcoming to new and lapsed players, and not just be a cool training exercise for snipers who want to see how quickly they can snipe me after I spawn.

PSYCHONAUTS 2

Man, I loved the original Psychonauts and have been so very excited for the follow up to finally come out. Luckily, I won’t have to wait much longer because it’s coming out at the end of August this year, and will be on Xbox Game Pass. Judging solely off of the trailer shown at the briefing it doesn’t look like Psychonauts 2 is straying too far from the path, vis-à-vis the things that made the original so successful and beloved. The humor seems on point, the art looks just as weird and flamboyant as I remember, and the gameplay looks just as good as I remember the original did (hopefully it’s less cumbersome this time though). The only real difference that I could see was that the levels look a bit larger and more mechanically diverse than in the original, which is a welcome change.

I don’t know what you’re supposed to do to revitalize a long dormant franchise of a cult classic to make it appeal to modern gamers, but I do know that I’m totally on the hook for this psychedelic platformer. And hey, it’s only been like 16 years since the original released, so I’m sure it’ll live up to everyone’s totally reasonable expectations and no one will be upset about anything.

PARTY ANIMALS

Man, I don’t know who’s out there developing games with me explicitly in mind, but I want to thank them so much. Party Animals looks like one of my favorite multiplayer games of all time, Gang Beasts, but like, if Gang Beasts was a bit more polished than it is. I don’t know what else to really say that can entice you more than the trailer can, but if you like silly ragdoll-centric mayhem where everyone is dressed as (or is?) an adorable animal, then we have nothing more to discuss. It’s just a shame that Party Animals isn’t going to be with us until sometime in 2022.

HALO INFINITE

Maybe I’m a fool, but I still want a good Halo game to come out. I’ve enjoyed parts of the past two Halo games, namely some of the single player campaign from 4, and most of the multiplayer from 5, but I would just love to see Halo be the tour de force it used to be once more. Despite the misguided story stuff from 5 though, I’m still kind of invested in these characters and this story that’s spanned more than half of my life at this point.

So later this year we’ll see if all of the complaints and delays really made Halo Infinite a better product than its initial reveal led us to believe. The most exciting developments from the trailer this year easily include the versatility of the grappling hook, which allows you hook onto not only surfaces, but you can pick up weapons and equipment with it and jack vehicles as well. The story bits in the trailer were also real intriguing, with this fake-ass non-Cortana hanging out with my good buddy, Master Chief, as well as the usual haunting occasional narration from Cortana herself. I haven’t checked in on the multiplayer presentation as of writing this, but apparently it is going to be free-to-play, which seems like a smart move to me.

We’ll see if it lives up to expectations when it drops on Game Pass and in retail this holiday season. Because of course they didn’t give it a firm date.

SHREDDERS

Despite having arguably one of the stupidest names for a game, Shredders looks like an extremely chill snowboarding game that I might be into. I’m not a big snowboarder or even a big fan of the outdoors in general, but even I can admit that Shredders looks super fun in a low stakes kind of way. Whereas something like Steep was a little too annoying in that classic Ubisoft way, where like, everyone was making terrible jokes and quipping at you constantly, Shredders seems like it’s going for a more relaxed vibe, trading out chatty NPCs with abject silence, while focusing on a more realistic representation of what it’s like to “shred that gnar.”

Like most of what was shown at the Microsoft event, it too will be coming to Game Pass when it releases later this year on December 12th, just in time for me to be utterly sick of the snow.

REPLACED

I don’t quite know what happened to The Last Night, but if it never comes out which is looking more and more to be the case, at least we can look forward to something like Replaced which might actually come out. Listen, I’m always gonna be here for a cyberpunk-themed side-scroller, but man am I excited for this one. First and foremost, it just looks fucking incredible which would be reason alone for me to try it out, but from what little combat and platforming that was shown, it looks like it won’t just be all flash and no substance.

There isn’t much else to really glean from the trailer itself, but that hasn’t done anything to dampen my excitement or anticipation. And like I said, considering Replaced is slated for release next year and is a day one Game Pass game, I think I can more safely assume it might actually come out. So that’s something.

XBOX GAME PASS

Out of the 30 or so games that were announced and discussed at the Microsoft presentation, I think only like 4 of them aren’t going to be on the Game Pass service, which is really quite impressive. I don’t know that anyone who owns an Xbox would have a tough time justifying signing up for Game Pass before this presentation, but after what was shown, it kind of seems essential to the whole Xbox ecosystem. Obviously that’s the point of what Microsoft has been doing, but they really made a strong case for it the other day. With games like the new Dark Alliance dropping day one later this month, to Microsoft Flight Simulator dropping in July, Psychonauts 2 in August, and plenty of other big name titles headlining each month for the remainder of 2021, I just don’t know how you can resist hopping onboard the Game Pass train.

Microsoft did a big dump of games, and while not everything resonated with me, I was genuinely impressed with how stacked their lineup is, especially considering the kind of year the developers making these games had to endure. Consider me impressed Microsoft. Now if only you could provide some sort of expandable memory for the Xbox Series consoles that didn’t cost $220, that would be just delightful.

Blog: Me3 2021 – 06/16/21

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I feel like I just got slapped in the face with video games, which as well know can only mean that E3 has taken place once again. But don’t confuse that with Game Fest, a thing that I think started before E3 and is lasting long after it. We’ve got like a dozen game-focused events popping off all summer, so this whole thing is a lot clumsier than it normally is. It’s a mess that’s only gotten messier thanks to a certain pandemic, and will only get worse as E3 flails around trying to grasp at those precious last breaths of relevance. But until that day comes, I guess I’m gonna just keep looking at headlines and trailers and regurgitating that stuff back onto this site with that patented “Ari Spice,” which sounds grosser than I wanted it to, but oh well.

The oddest part about this whole clusterfuck of game announcements is that I’ve barely watched any of it. I don’t think as a hobbyist I can dedicate full days to sitting and watching press events about video games anymore, because it’s exhausting and unnecessary if we’re being honest with ourselves. Like, I didn’t need to watch whatever the hell Square Enix was doing this year, because I usually don’t tend to get grabbed by most of the games they make. I checked out that trailer for the Final Fantasy action game, Stranger of Paradise I believe is the subtitle to that one, and boy howdy did it look real dumb. They just kinda made the most generic looking protagonist who seems like he was pulled out of some middling 3rd person action game from the early 2000s, and said “good enough!” It truly reminds me of that terrible Shadow the Hedgehog game from the mid-2000s with how unnecessarily edgy it’s trying to be.

But whatever, maybe it’ll be great and I’ll be jealous of all the fun that everyone is having playing it. All I know for sure is that I’m really glad I didn’t have to sit through a press conference to see that, I’ve literally missed out on nothing by watching the trailer on YouTube a few days later with the exception of whatever tragedies were taking place in the live chat.

That’s kind of the beautiful side-effect of not checking or engaging with social media as much anymore, because I don’t feel this pressure to be on the cutting edge of what’s being announced or anything. The Bonus World isn’t a news site, and working my ass off to put up articles recapping conferences immediately after they end, doesn’t do anything for me or this site. So I’m just not bothering with it.

As far as actual E3 content goes, there will be some stuff that hits this week, but it’s not going to be anywhere near as comprehensive as it’s been in the past. I’m allowing myself to ease off the gas pedal a bit here, because I know that nobody is coming to The Bonus World for up to the minute game news. If that were the case, you’d be woefully out of touch with what the industry is up to and only know about weird simulator games I’m into at the moment. But that’s okay. I like the little slice of the internet that this site occupies, and I’m not going to overwork myself for literally no benefit.

So yeah, E3 is happening or already happened, I’m not sure anymore. And quite frankly, I’m happier this way.