Are you enjoying the E3 show so far? We sure do and we hope you’re all enjoying the announcements and conferences so far.
Of course, we want to share our opinions on each conference, but we’re doing it differently this time: You will first see some of our reactions to EA’s and Microsoft’s press conference, but we will update this article to include our reaction to all other press conferences as soon as they are finished. So you’ll read our reactions to the press conferences from Ubisoft, Sony and more. So keep an eye on this article to see all our reactions!
(Note: Nintendo will be excluded from this article as we’ll do a separate article for our reaction to Nintendo’s Digital Event and Super Smash Bros. Switch)
EA
It’s very easy to leave mean comments about EA’s press conference. So I think it’s fair to admit that I’m really not into sports games and was bored for the most time. This is how every EA press conference was. And yet, they didn’t talk as much as usual and I still was bored for the most time. But there were moments, where I was genuinely interested. Unravel Two looks like a consequent sequel and I think it will be a solid title like the first game. And Sea of Solitude looks really interesting to me, especially as it focuses on self-doubt and angst. Anthem also looks neat and it feels like Monster Hunter and Xenoblade Chronicles X had a child.
But this is where my interests end and in general, EA’s press conference left a bad taste. Especially their new selling point “No loot boxes” feels incredibly forced and dishonest. And usually, I appreciate “We’re sorry”-messages when companies mess up. But I have a hard time in really trusting EA and that they’re serious about it. Especially after they did a similar “We’re sorry, we’re listening now to the fans”-campaign at E3 last year. Overall, I wasn’t really interested and some reveals felt very dragged on. It was a bit weird to give the mobile phone-game Command & Conquer: Rivals so much time and this was actually my low point of the conference. Really hope it didn’t mess up the reveal and people are more turned off to this game.
(EDIT: As it turned out, EA had to disable the dislike bar from the Announcement Trailer on YouTube. Wops.)
And even tho the concept of EA Origin Access sounds cool and such, I still feel I should wait until there is more information available.
So yeah, certainly not impressed. But E3 2018 can go only better from this point on.
Microsoft
Good job, this was a good press conference!
There was some PR-blubberish here and there, but I never was really bored and Microsoft kept showing games after another.
My highlight was, of course, Devil May Cry 5! Not because I’m a fan of the series, but rather that I was tricked! The first minutes, I really thought they were going to announce DmC2, a sequel to the reboot. And even in retrospective, gameplay and art style still reminds me a lot of DmC. So I was prepared for super angry fans and got confused when they showed off the Devil May Cry 5-logo. But I don’t mind, I really like the gameplay of DmC and having some elements of it in the “real” Devil May Cry is in my book pretty good. Then they showed off Kingdom Hearts 3 and I sadly missed the chance to ask my Twitter-follower, if a Frozen-World in Kingdom Hearts 3 would be surprising or exciting. I mean, we all saw it coming, right? But good on Square Enix to have one of Disney’s best-selling franchise in Kingdom Hearts 3. Many are surely happy about that. Then, DLC for Cuphead is very exciting (but not surprising considering the huge success). Battletoads finally have a new game (time to call Gamestop to pre-order it). Jump Force looks interesting (weird, but interesting).
A new Halo, Cyberpunk 2077 and and and. One thing that kinda “bothers” me is that I wasn’t really given a reason to get an Xbox One now. Microsoft showed more multiplatform games, which means I can play most announcements either on PC or PS4. But for me as a consumer, that’s not really a problem, hehe. Phil Spencer, congratulations. It was a good show and even tho I still don’t feel the urge to buy an Xbox One.
Now, about that “Banjo”-game…
Devolver Digital
Mech Nina VS Fils-A-Mech.
Make it happen!
Square Enix
That…was pointless.
Happy about the new PlatinumGames-games, but anything else…not worth writing much.
I do understand that Square Enix probably made deals with Sony and Microsoft to show their announcements at their conferences, but this was just a trailer show with some trailers we already saw.
Ubisoft
It was alright. Ubisoft showed many good games, but the pacing felt very dragged on. Especially with their format to show two trailers for the same game and I think a lot of information could have gone out much faster.
Sadly, not many games really appealed to me, but my highlight was definitely Beyond Good & Evil 2. The game looks amazing and outstanding and I’m really happy that Ubisoft puts so much effort into this project. And the fanart-project is neat. I’m quite optimistic.
Biggest show surprise was Star Fox in Starlink: Battle for Atlas. I think no one saw this coming and I was extremely surprised that Nintendo was open to this idea. But on second thought, it was not the first time since Nintendo also approved a cooperation with Donkey Kong and Bowser in Skylanders. But glad that Ubisoft requested an appropriate character from Nintendo’s huge catalog of franchises and not Mario, which would make from a marketing standpoint more sense. Surprised that Sony and Microsoft didn’t receive exclusive content like a Ratchet & Clank Playset.
But overall, yeah, was alright.
Ubisoft
It was alright. Ubisoft showed many good games, but the pacing felt very dragged on. Especially with their format to show two trailers for the same game and I think a lot of information could have gone out much faster.
Sadly, not many games really appealed to me, but my highlight was definitely Beyond Good & Evil 2. The game looks amazing and outstanding and I’m really happy that Ubisoft puts so much effort into this project. And the fanart-project is neat. I’m quite optimistic.
Biggest show surprise was Star Fox in Starlink: Battle for Atlas. I think no one saw this coming and I was extremely surprised that Nintendo was open to this idea. But on second thought, it was not the first time since Nintendo also approved a cooperation with Donkey Kong and Bowser in Skylanders. But glad that Ubisoft requested an appropriate character from Nintendo’s huge catalog of franchises and not Mario, which would make from a marketing standpoint more sense. Surprised that Sony and Microsoft didn’t receive exclusive content like a Ratchet & Clank Playset.
But overall, yeah, was alright.
Sony
It was a bit of a letdown. To be clear here, we were already warned right before and even in the middle of the show that we won’t see many surprises. So I lowered my expectations and I think it was a good thing to go in without hyping myself.
First, the format was just awkward. Just awkward.
They tried something unique and tried to create a more immersive environment for their gameplay trailer for The Last of Us II. The idea was nice, but I think it created more annoyance for attendees to either stand and then change location. And stream watchers had to wait and had to endure a trailer reel. Broke the pacing and it felt much shorter than it actually was.
Games were nice tho. The Last of Us II looks as solid and high quality as expected. I should play the first game and look forward to playing the second one.
Then it was followed by Ghost by Tsushima and I was amazed by the environment graphics and the light effects. I was so fascinated by the light reflecting on the leaves and they put so much effort into making it looks so amazing and perfect. If this is coming to PlayStation 4, then this is definitely the peak of the system. I’m definitely picking it up, it’s just wow.
Everything else is just cool to okay for me. Death Stranding is still confusing, Spider-Man still looks fun, Kingdom Hearts 3 still looks fun and is still confusing, the stuff shown is pretty solid. And hey, they finally showed us the Resident Evil 2-remake, which was rumored for a long time and finally was revealed. I’m sure many fans are happy and excited. But I was still left with a lukewarm, very underwhelming feeling and I wish we would have seen more new reveals. Microsoft did that much better. I was definitely not expecting Final Fantasy VII Remake and wasn’t even expecting to understand what’s going on in Death Stranding. But I was at least expecting a better conference pacing and some more reveals.
I already hear you, how should Sony get game reveals out of nowhere? Well, they actually had one new IP. Remember the in-between-sketches from funny looking creatures between the game reveals? That was actually Dreams, the new game from Media Molecule, the creators of Little Big Planet. I was waiting for a full surprise reveal and was disappointed, that it was set aside into the after-show and no one really knows what those scenes were about. A bit bummed about the butchered reveal since Dreams sounds so promising and would deserve a proper appearance on the show…
Sony, don’t rest on our laurels with your Playstation-brand.
EA
EA’s Press Conference this year definitely wasn’t as bad as last years. Although there were still many games like Fifa, Madden, and NBA that I had zero interest in, there were still some games that caught my interest. Unravel Two looks very interesting and cute, so I hope I can get the chance to play it and the first game some day. Sea of Solitude looks absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to see more of the game, in terms of its art style and the story it ends up telling. I’m still interested in Anthem, as I love mechs, but I don’t think I’ll ever play it. Open world esque games tend to scare me with how much time you would need to be dedicated to them, especially since it has multiplayer aspects. This was an interesting E3 for EA, but the worst part was definitely the mobile commentary and gameplay. That should’ve been kept out of the presentation entirely.
Microsoft
I remember last year being a snooze fest for Xbox, except for Dragon Ball FighterZ. But this year was absolutely amazing for Xbox. There were definitely some titles I didn’t care about: Dying Light 2, Division 2, Gears POP!, and Metro Exodus. However, they had big guns this year. Kingdom Hearts 3 having a trailer was the first thing to catch me off guard and almost made me think just about what the heck is going on with Aqua. Tales of Vesperia caught me off guard as well because Microsoft never really had the anime flare like Sony does. So showing off that, KH3, and as well as the spectacular looking Jump Force was a sight to behold.
Towards the end, we saw Gears of War 5, which had me completely quiet about how the story was being built. It felt like a movie, and that is no insult. Shadow of the Tomb Raider caught my eye, but I still don’t have any experience with the franchise – so I wouldn’t buy it. Devil May Cry 5, was so amazing to see that I literally have no other words to say other than – Wow. As the last title, Cyberpunk 2077 was definitely a great way to end it off. Not because I wanted it, but because I did hear rumors about it coming. Confirming it with a bang of a trailer was definitely the right move. There were smaller scale games like Tunic and Cuphead DLC that also caught my interest, but nothing to make me consider buying an Xbox. I would definitely give Xbox’s conference a 7.5/10, good job Microsoft!
Bethesda
It was pretty cool! I expected new games from them, and at first, their presentation did start out slow. However, when Doom Eternal has announced their presentation completely sped up. Fallout Shelter for Switch, more Wolfenstein in general, and more information on Fallout 76 was very interesting to see. However, the biggest announcement was a new IP called Starfield and Skyrim Very Special Edition! Yes, that is actually real. The actual last big announcement from Bethesda was Elder Scrolls VI, which I very much expected but was still surprised to hear.
Square Enix
The only thing I cared about was the new Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer, I got that so they did well.
Ubisoft
It wasn’t bad, definitely wasn’t bad. My highlights were Trials and Starlink: Battle for Atlas. Both of these titles are coming to Switch and I’m specifically hyped for Starlink as they announced a collaboration with Nintendo! There will be Fox and his Arwing in the game, along with a huge Arwing figure you can get. These are games I will pick up. As for everything else? It wasn’t bad, just didn’t interest me. Ubisoft had a solid conference this time around, except for the random stream cut out.
Sony
This could have been 100% better. Sony started out incredibly weak not because of what they showed, but because of how they presented it. That was completely disgusting and I hope they never do that ever again in any other presentation.
However, the games that they showed was completely phenomenal. The Last of Us Part II looks incredibly scary with how attentive you need to be during playing. Ghost of Tsushima looks BEAUTIFUL. I’ve never seen a more beautiful realistic game in my life. Another new Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer, which made me completely ecstatic as they also announced a full collection of Kingdom Hearts 1.5, 2.5, 2.8, and 3 along with a limited edition PS4. Resident Evil 2 is announced and it looks great! I really didn’t expect it at the beginning of the trailer, but it was a pleasant surprise. Capcom is doing great as of lately. Death Stranding, we finally have gameplay and more story – I think? I’m still confused, but even more intrigued than ever before. They ended it off with Spider-Man and it not only looks cool but damn am I worried about what Peter is going to go through with having to fight against 4 major villains
Microsoft
Microsoft: I actually thought Microsoft brought their A-game this year to E3. There were tons of really decent game announcements and their presentation style really meshed well. A highlight for me, as Phantom is saying above, was the Gears of Wars trailer. During our reaction, you could clearly hear a pin drop when we saw the trailer. It felt like a movie of sorts and enveloped us quite a lot.
Bethesda
Bethesda: Just like Microsoft, I think Bethesda hit it home. The presentation was fantastic. Delivering fan-favorites like The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 76, as well as some stuff for Switch owners. There was definitely something for everyone there, and it felt fun to watch. Humor was also prominent in every way. The callout towards Walmart Canada was just completely savage and the Alexa Skyrim segment took the cake. Overall, I’d say it’d be the best press conference I’ve been so far. (I’ve written this before Sony and Nintendo’s conference, so things might change.)
Square Enix
Square Enix: I agree with Spazzy. Gex should’ve been the last title. I give the conference a No Gex/10 and Square should be ashamed of themselves. (In all seriousness, the conference was lackluster and very repetitious repetition.)
Ubisoft
This conference was relatively decent. It had some cool surprises that were neat to see unveiled. I kinda jumped out of my seat when I saw Fox McCloud in that Starlink game (although, I saw it first in the middle of the trailer, so I thought it was a new Star Fox at first for some reason). Beyond Good and Evil 2 (even though it’s a prequel) looked really good as well. It reminded me I still need to play the first game. The Donkey Kong concert was also a blast as well. Overall, Ubisoft was entertaining enough to stand out on its own for a bit, but nothing that was super major.
Microsoft
Okay, truth be told, I walked into this conference with middling expectations. All I can readily remember from their 2017 show was boredom and Dragon Ball FighterZ, so Microsoft needed to accomplish very little to please me.
Thankfully, that bar was readily met. While the majority of the titles that interested me are coming in 2019 (and while I’m still baffled Microsoft continually ignores their iconic mascot), there was a solid assortment of variety in what was showcased. In particular, I was hoping to see Gears of War 5 from them, and its reveal did not let me down. I, however, have mixed feelings about Microsoft procuring five new studios, but at least it seems they intend to ramp up their output.
Square Enix
There were a bunch of cool games here. It was unfortunate I had already heard about most of them before the presentation though. The new stuff I did see was interesting however, Babylon Falls looks very interesting, I was expecting another Final Fantasy remake the way it looked and was even more surprised seeing it was Platinum, really wish there was some gameplay though. The Quiet Man was somewhat out of nowhere for me, I don’t really know what to expect from it, I’m not really sold on the concept either, definitely need to see more than what was shown today. Everything else I knew about before the presentation though. Kingdom Hearts 3, of course, looks amazing. Octopath Traveller I’m very excited to play a month from now. I got very excited when 2B showed up for Nier only to realize it was an Xbox One release trailer. Dragon Quest looks cool, Akira Toriyama’s art style in 3D always looks a bit weird though. Tomb Raider and Just Cause don’t really interest me but it’s cool they’re there, same kind of thing with Final Fantasy XVI but Monster Hunter World crossover is really cool!.
Sony
I feel a bit mixed with Sony but the games they showed were really cool. Ghost of Tsushima looks interesting but I’d like to understand more about how the combat system will work. It looks a bit like Assassins Creed but I hope it’s more in depth than that. Death Stranding trailer was great, glad to finally see some gameplay of it. I don’t know how to describe how I feel about Death Stranding but it’s definitely game that will get me to buy Sony’s next console. Last of us part 2 looks ok, Sony really went over the top preparing the venue for just the Last of Us, definitely ruined the experience a bit for me at home having to sit through 20 minutes of nothing while the attendees moved from one venue to another then only getting a Call of Duty DLC trailer before more talking….. Yeah, trailers were really cool but the presentation as a whole was really boring till it picked up near the end.
Sony
While the show felt a little awkward to watch from home with their odd intermission, I liked the content shown here. Last of Us II looks really nice, honestly. Seeing Kingdom Hearts III again didn’t surprise me, but it still looks exciting. I’m happy we once again got a bizarre look at Death Stranding, which still looks confusing, but I’m excited to eventually dive into it and learn what its story is trying to tell. I have to say I absolutely love Spider-Man each time I see it. I’m so ready to swing around New York City when that comes in September. Overall, the content of Sony’s conference was good, even though nothing got me exceptionally hyped. My only qualms are the awkward start to the presentation, and the fact that all of those music performances were not leading up to “Playstation Music.”
I was glad seeing a sequel to Unravel, the Cuphead DLC and the annoucment of a new Battletoads title. And while I’m no big fan of the series, it was very cool seeing DMC5 officialy annouced, good that it also debunks a few earlier rumors (such as the game being PS4 exclusive). It seems that the human artstyle of Ninja Theory’s DmC game will ‘live on’ in DMC5 which I’m not so crazy about but can get used to. I do hope though that Capcom fix Dante up a little bit, his face almost makes him look heavily drunk, lol. 😛
I was glad seeing a sequel to Unravel, the Cuphead DLC and the annoucment of a new Battletoads title. And while I’m no big fan of the series, it was very cool seeing DMC5 officialy annouced, good that it also debunks a few earlier rumors (such as the game being PS4 exclusive). It seems that the human artstyle of Ninja Theory’s DmC game will ‘live on’ in DMC5 which I’m not so crazy about but can get used to. I do hope though that Capcom fix Dante up a little bit, his face almost makes him look heavily drunk, lol. 😛