This is it. This is the big one. Enough preamble; let's get right to the meat and bones of this Direct.
"Nintendo won E3" is kind of a tired phrase, or even a meme at this point, but I genuinely think they had the best showing out of everybody this E3. Not that this is a contest, of course, but the amount of new shit, surprises, and a minimum amount of dragging/dull moments really did Nintendo wonders. Fuck, I'm gonna be so broke by the end of this year....
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On deck for today is Square Enix's E3 presentation. I'm mostly looking forward to Avengers, but I'm hoping there's some more cool shit in here. LISTS:
Square Enix had some heavy hitters this year with FFVII Remake and Avengers, and both made for a decent show. The other stuff varied greatly, however, so it's a boon for Square Enix to have had some high-profile games to show off in addition.
The next E3 post is the big one. Get hyped for the Nintendo Direct tomorrow. - end - The E3 2019 news/hype train chugs along today. I skipped the PC Gaming Show, so the first thing I'll be talking about today is Ubisoft's press conference. Tired of bullet lists yet?
Overall, that was a solid press conference, but nothing really stood out to me as completely surprising or incredibly mind-blowing. There was also a strange amount of announcements unrelated to games. Other than Watch_Dogs (which was a pleasant surprise), Roller Champions, and Jon goddamn Bernthal, I wasn't really floored by much else in this press conference.
Tune in later for my thoughts on Square Enix. Show me that Avengers game! - emd - Next, we got Devolver Digital, which started immediately after Bethesda's and caught me off guard because I was writing the blog post for that. More lists!
Not only were there some cool games in here, Devolver Digital impressed me with how far they went to put on a hilarious presentation. The premise was over-the-top in the best way, the dialogue tearing into game industry tropes was topnotch, and it looked like they had a fuckton of fun coming up with all sorts of bits for the entire show. The Devolver Direct was meant to be a parody, but it actually captures the whimsy of some of Nintendo's finest E3 Directs (like the 2014 one that had the Robot Chicken skits), albeit in a more not-safe-for-kids fashion. Even if you're not necessarily interested in the games, this presentation is fun to watch in itself.
Now, I heard that Devolver's previous E3 presentations had the same amount of flair and ridiculousness mixed into them. I'm gonna have to watch some of them back now. That's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow for more E3 bullshit. - end - Our next press conference is that of Bethesda's. Let's get right into the thick of it. Here's the list of things:
I was very impressed with what they had to show this year. Their newly announced games looked interesting, the updates to existing ones (while I don't own said games) look massive, the upcoming games got me even more excited (Doom and Wolfenstein, baby), and there was even a neat surprise with Blades coming to Switch in the future. Even the segments not focused on games were stuff I appreciated; the Orion stuff was impressive, and all the touching videos interspersed throughout the show, while cheesy and sappy, did resonate with me on some level. Good job, Bethesda.
I'm probably gonna look at Devolver's presentation next. Stay tuned for that. - end - E3 is in full swing today, which means staying up at ungodly hours to watch a bunch of livestreams. Our first big one is Microsoft's Xbox presentation. Bullet list time!
Well, that was a ton of shit. While there were some cool reveals here and there, I now recall why I find Microsoft press conferences tedious: the amount of self-congratulatory shit and the gratuitous use of the word "gamer". Couple this with how they went quantity over quality (they made it a point to highlight that they'll be showing off 60 games today) and it's a recipe for fatigue.
Don't let this take away from the games themselves, however, because there were some cool things throughout this press conference. Even the whole "Xbox is the future" shit where they swing their dicks and show off their new products/services had some neat stuff in it. It's simply the whole content vs. presentation issue that irks me. I'll be talking about Bethesda's presentation a little later, so tune in for that blog entry. Here's hoping for that Doom Eternal release date. - end - The E3 Nintendo Direct isn't until Tuesday, but the festivities start early with Nintendo's slew of competitive events this weekend. I'll be talking about all of them here. Here's the stream VOD for now: The one I was most interested in watching was the Mario Maker 2 Invitational, because it's a new game. As such, I have a little bit more to say with this event. Our four contestants are Abdallah, dragonfeeney, Yellowkillerbee, and Jirard (AKA The Completionist). Out of these four, I'm only familiar with the latter two, but what the others lacked in familiarity, they more than made up for with impressive platforming skills. The first round was a speedrun challenge where pairs of challengers faced off against each other to see who can beat the level the fastest. This level was a showcase of the new 3D World style, and featured an ample amount of its exclusive level elements (like the car, the clear pipes, and Cat Mario). It featured brilliant use of the snake blocks (using it for wall jumps) and brutal platforming sections (the ! Block section and the bouncy mushroom + blinking bricks section), and made for an exciting opening contest. The second round was a brilliant showcase of the new co-op feature in the game. The puzzles were brilliantly crafted around teamwork. Both teams were quick-witted and brilliant in this one, showing off their platforming intuition in full force. The final round was a gauntlet of three clever, puzzle-based mini-levels that showcased the new objective feature, and culminated in a vicious final level that showed off even more of the new level elements (used in both technically demanding, execution-based sections and neat puzzles) that made for a thrilling finale. Abdallah ended up winning, which was bittersweet, as I am a big fan of Jirard and I was really pulling for him to succeed. Secondly, we have the third annual Splatoon 2 Championships: The first round featured a round robin of cut and dry Turf War matches to determine seeding, where it became clear that Japan's GG Boyz (one of the best Splatoon teams in the world) are still absolutely vicious in a match. The semifinals featured two best of five sets. Japan vs. Australia/New Zealand was a brutal shutout that saw GG Boyz completely tear through AUNZ's Lime Soda, while EU vs. NA was a thrilling series that went to a Game 5 (and it featured one of the most exhilarating Splat Zones matches I've ever seen). The finals saw JPN going head-to-head with NA in a best of seven series. It looked like NA's FTWin was poised to claim the upset victory, but GG Boyz proved to be too formidable. After a hard-fought series, the GG Boyz take their second Splatoon 2 World title in six games. Afterwards, Mr. Nogami (director of the game) came out to both congratulate the champs, and announce the final SplatFest theme for next month (Chaos vs. Order, a 72-hour event featuring every Shifty Station map from the previous SplatFests). In addition, he also talks about the final 5.0 update for the game, which adds said stages to private matches. Finally, the last event of the day was the Smash Ultimate World Championships. As oppsoed to a typical Smash tournament where the participants are individuals, the competitors are a team of four (three orimary, one reserve) representing four regions (NA, AUNZ, JPN, EU). The overall rules of the competition were: items on low, hazards off, stage morph on. Not really the most competitively sound rules, but they provided an ample amount of variety you normally don't see at major Smash tournaments. The first round was a rather contrived round robin between the four teams to determine seeding. The first game is a 1v1 against two members of opposing teams, while the second game is a doubles match featuring the remaining members. This part wasn't all that engaging, as both games were timed matches, so there was no clear sense of who was winning (especially in doubles). There were some neat plays here and there, but nothing really stood out as remarkable. On the other hand, the excitement started to pick up during the semifinals. Here, it was a best of three series between opposing teams, with team members rotating each game. Matches were contested in a single-player 3v3 Squad Strike, which made for exciting viewing thanks to the character variety. The finals were contested in a best of five, featuring the same Squad Strike simulation. Team JPN put on an absolute clinic, picking up both of the first two games in the most unrelentingly dominant way possible: by three-stocking two of Team EU's finest players. Team EU brought it back in Game 3 (but not without taking a vicious zero-to-death courtesy of Japan), but ultimately, Japan proved to be too much, and claimed the Smash Ultimate 2019 title. It was a foregone conclusion, as the team had Zackray, one of the brightest stars in the Ultimate competitive scene today. After the event, Doug Bowser made his first public appearance as Nintendo of America's president by congratulating the winners and promoting the upcoming Direct this Tuesday. He also directed our attention to a special video that featured none other than Masahiro Sakurai (director of every Smash Bros. game, god among men). Sakurai teased the DLC characters but didn't reveal anything outright (they will likely do that during the Direct), which was a relief, since I probably couldn't have handled a surprise reveal at that point. In addition, Bowser talks about the next Smash Ultimate online tournament, but the twist this time is the winner will be entered into the Smash Ultimate tournament.... at EVO. Given Nintendo's tumultuous relationship with the competitive scene, it's surreal to see them actually organize an event to send somebody to the biggest fighting game tournament of the year. Nintendo has kicked off their E3 with an exciting day full of fun competition, but it's very clear that this is just an appetizer for things to come. I can't wait for the Direct!
- end - I cared about literally only one game in this presentation, so that's all this blog entry is gonna be. Here's the stream VOD if you want to put yourself through 3 hours of suffering: The one thing I wanna talk about is the beginning of the presentation, which is a feature on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. They showed 15 uninterrupted minutes of gameplay, followed by a little chit-chat with the devs from Respawn (hosted by Greg Miller of Kinda Funny, whose hosting style.... isn't for everyone). The gameplay puts you in a mission on Kashyyyk, where you are tasked at rescuing Wookiee prisoners. Story-wise, there isn't much, but the protagonist seems to have allied himself with Saw Gerrera (of Rogue One fame), so it'll be interesting lore-wise to see the genesis of the Rebel Alliance on the heels of Order 66. Jedi: Fallen Order plays like the modern 3D action-adventure game. You swing your lightsaber around, there's Z-targeting, you have dodge rolls, light and heavy attacks, light puzzle-solving, cut and dry traversal/exploration (e.g. here's a wall that's specifically for wall runs)... you know how it is. On that front, it's serviceable, but nothing remarkable stands out on the surface. It starts to get good when the Force gets involved. You can use it to solve puzzles and progress through the level (pushing/pulling obstacles), it grants you a double jump, and it allows you to push opponents off cliffs/into other opponents, and pull enemies in for a sort of assassination-type attack. The most interesting Force power is what they called Force "slow", which essentially slows down time. It's shown to slow down fast-moving hazards/obstacles and, most impressively, stopping enemies in their tracks. You can pull a Kylo Ren, freeze a blaster rifle bolt in suspended animation, and Force pull a Stormtrooper into its line of fire. I'm guessing this gonna be the big gameplay hook. The companion droid has some utility as your "hacking" device, and also doubles as a source of Estus Flask-esque healing. I wonder if it'll have more functions. There's also hints of a skill tree (the gameplay presentation showed that the player was earning skill points), but nothing about it was shown (maybe that's how you get shit like the saber throws). There seemed to be a good variety of enemies to face. You have your typical Stormtroopers (whose shots you can deflect, of course), specialized types like the scouts (who have electric batons), the Flame Troopers (who look nothing like in Rogue One, but have flamethrowers nonetheless), and the all-new Purge Troopers (who are these Stormtroopers with black armor wielding Magna Guard staffs), who look pretty cool. In addition, you can also fight droids (they tease a fight with a K2 droid at the end of the presentation) and funky alien wildlife. I appreciate the variety, and I hope they go all in with that. While I am still skeptical over how this may turn out (remember: EA is involved), but going by this presentation, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is shaping up to be the story-driven, single-player Star Wars experience fans have been clamoring for. Please don't fuck this up...
And don't ask me about the rest of EA Play. I wrote this blog post with it in the background after the 30 minutes I gave a shit about and I tuned that shit out. Apparently there's a new Apex Legends character? That's the only part I caught. I'm not gonna watch three hours of a) games I don't really care about, and b) aren't even remotely in the realm of interesting or surprising (other than Star Wars, all the other games are known quantities). E3 is slowly shaping up, so expect more blog entries on press conferences and shit. The main event for me will be Nintendo (obviously), but I'm still interested in whatother publishers have to show (Microsoft, Bethesda, Devolver) to show, and I'm super excited for Square Enix's presentation (we're finally gonna see their Avengers game!). - end - |
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