Another year,
another E3 has passed. Honestly I've done the news round up and rode
the hype train so many times it is all become so embarrassingly rote
to me. Stick to the big announcements and build them up, wag your
finger at the major disappointments and missteps, then hold on and
see what games actually come out this year and then write a feature
about what happens. Not to mention get in contact with PR and try to
get review copies of games out for topical reviews. Rinse, repeat,
cash the check.
But this year's E3
was very unusual in that it was across the board fine. Alright.
Completely middle of the ground compared to past years....
What the hell?
Yeah there is a
certain amount of glee and even righteous fury that can be gained
from seeing a show or a pitch go awry. Primarily because it means I
still have a job of being an insufferable smart ass with a wide
vocabulary, but also because it can give insight into what exactly
the industry thinks of the community and what they think the gaming
community want. Industry of trends and all that.
So let's get on the
hype train together again as I go over several of the biggest
announcements brought up by E3 2017 and why I think you should pull
back on your enthusiasm, and several announcements that I think
should have gotten more attention. First, the bad!
Microsoft: The
Xbox One X (The X stands for Deja Vu)
… it sucked.
Alright, fine. Cards on the table, I never liked the Xbox One. I hate
how it looks like a fancy VHS from the mid-90s and sounded like a
chainsaw when it runs. I hate its counter-intuitive UI that will
vomit ads for Doritos and Netflix and the next Call of Duty in your
face but make it a damn chore to just look for games in your library.
I hate that Microsoft thought they could put DRM into it and piss off
bargain bin gamers and the entire second-hand retail game business
and charge you 500 bucks for the privilege and thought they could
hide it by using a shitload of buzzwords about The Cloud (which isn't
how cloud computation works at all!). But above all, I hate that it's
a console that sold itself as a multimedia all-in-one box like an
overpriced Apple product (I'm not being snobby I use an iPhone) and
primarily forgot that console exclusive games help sell a machine
like this. Halo and Gears of War only go so far, and aside from like
two or three games around the console's launch, every other exclusive
has either been canceled or found more success on other machines.
Microsoft desperately needed to reach out beyond their established
consumer base if they wanted to get their heads back in the game in
the console war against Sony, actually make their Windows 10 platform
a viable competitor to the myriad of other outlets of PC gaming, and
actually bring some personality back to things to handle Nintendo's
sudden rise back to prominence with the Switch.
What they did... was blow an entire 90 minute presentation on a lot
of trend-chasing and marketing guff and nothing to show for it. They
talked about how the Xbox One X was a much more powerful upgrade from
the Xbox One and how they talked with developers about how they
changed the hardware to make it easier to develop for and bring a
premium experience to players. Basically the exact same pitch they
gave back when the original model launched.
They then proceeded to show off one tech demo of Minecraft running at
4K resolution, announced a new Forza game and then want on to talk
about limited exclusives, timed exclusives, exclusive premiere
trailers for games that are NOT exclusive to their platform, and some
ports of other games coming to the machine.
Seriously, the word “exclusive” lost all of its credibility by
the time that show concluded. Much the same way a good chunk of other
exclusives for the Xbone eventually fled ship and came to Steam and
PS4 later.
Oh and this allegedly premium box that runs everything better than
the established base model Xbox One, not a single example shown.
Seriously specs are one thing, but people need to see how much better
it runs and there wasn't even a side by side comparison of
performance to put the PS4 Pro's Boost Mode to shame in this entire
90 minute presentation. What we got was Terry Crews being Terry Crews
before a developer confirmed that Crackdown 3 was gonna be locked to
30 FPS. So much for power folks.
Oh and once again, this new box will cost you $500 bucks. Or..you can
save some money and get a PS4 Pro for cheaper. Yeah it's not “true
4K gaming experience” but at least one has diverse console
exclusives.
As
for that Windows 10 exclusive? Ten bucks says within two years those
exclusives jump ship to Steam, GoG, or Origin. Don't believe me?
Killer
Instinct is coming to Steam!
Now the updated Xbox
Live avatars that are the result of a concerted effort of a massive
inclusion initiative by Microsoft? That's fine. So yeah 6/10, needs
more disabled person options.
Bethesda Land:
Give Us Your Money and We'll Sell You Skyrim Again
I wish I could be more flippant about this. I actually like Bethesda
as a developer and a publisher. I love Dishonored, I enjoy the
occasional Elder Scrolls binge, and Doom 2016 and the
latest Wolfenstein games were the shit.
But their presentation was part of a really cheesy amusement park
look and it was done to dress up the fact they've ported Skyrim to
the Nintendo Switch, have made VR versions of Fallout 4 and Skyrim,
Made a Skyrim expansion to their Elder Scrolls Legends card game, and
even gave away Skyrim themed marital aides to everyone who attended
the show!
That last statement was false but would you have believed me at this
point!?
Also, there was the announcement of Creation Club, Bethesda's attempt
to basically sell mods for their games. On the one hand, I think it's
a clever idea to bring in modders as essentially third-party
developers to make new content for games, and it's also a clever way
to get around hardware and security concerns that have made Microsoft
and Sony particularly reticent about mod support on consoles. On the
other hand, PC players aren't going to let that fly, and Valve
already tried this once before and they backed down from shear
backlash. One way or another, this will end badly.
Ubisoft: We
Announced Beyond Good and Evil 2, That Means We Won
On the whole I actually enjoyed Ubisoft's conference. The Mario +
Rabbids crossover was unexpected and actually looks like a good bit
of fun. The shear audacity of the studio just taking the pirate ship
combat from Assassin's Creed 4 and turning into a flat-out
pirate game called Skull and Bones is just blatant
self-cannibalizing enough to work.
On the other hand, the big announcement that got a large reaction was
Beyond Good and Evil 2 getting announced. I should be glad that
Ubisoft even remembered this damn series even exists and they even
got the lead director of the original, Michel Ancel back for the
sequel, but there are a lot of red flags hidden under this
presentation.
First in several interviews after the show, Michel mentioned that the
game is actually a prequel, set before the birth of Jade, the
original game's protagonist, making this sequel a prequel-sequel.
Second, that despite a teaser trailer coming out back in 2008 and a
lot of blink and you miss it mollifying statements by the publisher
that “oh yeah we're totally working on this game,” Michel said
that the game basically just entered development.
This leads me to believe that either the game was in a very troubled
state with multiple planning stages and concepts dropped and after
almost a decade they finally settled on something. Which NEVER bodes
well for a finished product of an experience. Or that Ubisoft was
lying to fans and finally decided to just give them what they want.
With a preanimated trailer that showed off no gameplay at all.
By all means be excited, but be very wary, something doesn't seem
right.
Alright, now for the good!
The Retail Price
of Lawbreakers
Cliff Blezinski's new studio has been working on a multiplayer only
online shooter with fancy gravity mechanics. Looks fun enough but
people were dreading to hear how much it was going to cost people. At
the PC Game showcase, Cliff basically said on stage that the game
would be $29.99 and that it would be supported with free maps and
weapons. Then added, “screw that sixty dollar multiplayer-only
bullshit,” basically slamming the practices of Microsoft and EA.
Bold move, Cliff, and I love you for it.
It is also a fantastic example of a studio finally having the balls
to give a competitive price point to the standard $60 dollar market.
It's been done before with smaller productions, but to hear it come
from the mouth of the founder of one of the most well-regarded
studios in the industry today is a much needed shock to the system.
I mean it also won an award from The Game Fanatics so I might be a
little biased but whatever.
Sony's Dedication
to the PSVR
Remember the PlayStation Vita? How about the PlayStation TV? Or the
PSP Go? Remember how Sony pushed the crap out of those things then
let them wither and die when they didn't turn a profit immediately? I
certainly do!
Fast-forward to this E3 and Sony's conference was probably the most
toothless and inoffensive. New God of War footage was shown, a remake
of Shadow of the Colossus got announced which rocked my socks off,
and the videogame equivalent of boring gray sludge coalescing into
something resembling lowest common denominator entertainment showed
up in the post-apocalyptic dynamic open-world narrative focused
action-stealth crafting zombie killing experience Days Gone.
But Sony actually caught on that they're on to a good thing with
their PlayStation VR headset. Right now they have the cheapest
available option for VR gaming, a highly experimental niche in the
community, and on a console no less. And thanks to some savvy
marketing and planning, this darn thing actually turned a profit. So
naturally, Sony continued to show off more games for it and continued
to bring up more support for the experience. That is fantastic!
Basically
Everything At Nintendo's Conference
More stuff coming to the Nintendo Switch. Announcements of several
beloved series getting a new installment soon. The utter revival of
the Metroid franchise. That catchy as hell presentation of Super
Mario Odyssey. The fact that they showed off actual playable demos
that you can trust a lot more than heavily scripted and fake “live
demos” from other conferences. For all of the ways this company
infuriates and makes their fanbase angry, they really do need more
credit in this department this year.
And that was it, my obligatory post about E3. Now get out of here,
we'll see you in the next one!
No comments:
Post a Comment