E3 2021 Thoughts

After a terrible year of COVID complications resulting in E3 being canceled in 2020, E3 has returned... in some form. I'll go into my personal thoughts of the state of E3 at the end of the blog. For now, let's just jump into the shows I did watch. I'm also going to preface by saying that the order of the games mentioned may not be in the order shown just because I'm going off memory and articles.

Ubisoft

E3 started early for me as I was still at work, so I didn't catch this show live. Now, Ubisoft has always been rather hit or miss, and they certainly where more miss than hit this year. They started off by showing Rainbow Six Extraction, which used to be called Quarantine, but changed due to sensitivity around COVID. I know a little bit about Rainbow Six, but what I saw here was nothing like the previous games. They decided to go this entirely new direction with sci-fi horror having the team fight off waves of generic looking virus infected monsters. They also said levels would be procedurally generated with risk/reward mechanics, and I thought, "Great, they went Returnal." Needless so say, I won't be getting it. They also talked a bit about Rainbow Six Siege, but I've no interest in that. 

Farcry 6 was given some time, but you know what? Something seems off about Giancarlo Esposito's performance. I'm just not getting the creepy vibes from him as I would like in Breaking Bad. Anyway, the game looks fun, but nothing revolutionary. I'm sure it'll be a cookie cutter Ubisoft game. There's also going to be a multiplayer mode where you can play as any of the Farcry villains, which admittedly does sound cool. 

The crowning highlight of the show, and of the entirety of E3 for that matter, was the announcement of a Mario x Rabbids sequel called Sparks of Hope. This time, the game's going to be themed after Super Mario Galaxy and it looks like the gameplay has been revamped giving more freedom of movement to the characters allowing for new strategies. I was really delighted to see this because I absolutely enjoyed the first game and to see a sequel made to an outlandish mashup that had no business being as good as it was was very refreshing. Definitely getting this day one. 

After that, everything was downhill. Ubisoft did finally show off their Avatar game using their Snowdrop engine and although it does look nice, we know nothing about its gameplay. Movie-based games do not have a very good history of being good, so I have zero expectations for it now. 

They also announced a subscription-based Rocksmith+ service where you can play your guitar with any device, but I hardly felt like this needed to be E3 material. A new Steep-like game called Riders Republic was shown but it didn't hold my interest. Oh, and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla content for Year Two was revealed. That was about it. 

I also have to mention that there's a massive absentee here being Beyond Good and Evil 2. This game either needs to have an update or be officially canceled, because we've been wondering what's been going on for far too long. From what was shown, though, it wasn't looking promising, a mix of being overly ambitious and confused as to what it wants to be. It honestly should have been smaller in scope and been a true successor instead of this massive project that will most likely never be finished. It just sucks to pour so much money into a game and then sweep it under the rug. Maybe it's for the best as it would only be ruined by a live service business model. 

Rating: C

Gearbox

I don't really know why I even bothered to watch this. I'm not that familiar with Gearbox, but I think I watched it just to have something to watch that night. Gearbox's presentation was basically, "We're making a Borderlands movie, but we have nothing to show you, so we're just going to ramble on and on and oh, say hi to a mildly interested Kevin Hart." 

They did show off a new game called Tiny Tina's Wonderland, which looks like it'll fit right in with the Borderland games. They also announced that Godfall is coming to the PS4, and they announced a cartoonish Viking game called Tribes of Valhalla, but that was pretty much it. 

Rating: D-

Microsoft and Bethesda 

I'm still wrapping my mind around Microsoft now owning Bethesda, a publisher so big, they were grouped together with the major E3 presenters of the past. Microsoft definitely had one of the better showings of E3 in no part due to lack of competition. 

They started their show off with a trailer for Starfield. Although it was cool to see, it was unfortunately just a computer rendered trailer with no gameplay. It was referred to as Skyrim in space, so we'll see how it goes. I can't wait to experience Skyrim-quality bugs in space, though. The bomb shell was dropped that yes, it is a Microsoft exclusive, so it will only be on PC and Xbox consoles. There was talk about some currently developed games still being allowed to be published on other consoles during the acquisition, but it's clear now that MS is taking their ball and going home after paying seven billion dollars for it. We also have a release date for it, which is November 11th, 2022. 

We finally got another look at Halo: Infinite and it looks better. It still doesn't scream next-gen to me, but I can only base that on what I was shown in the stream. I might just have to play it on my own TV to get a true feel of the graphics. They also announced the multiplayer portion of H:I will be free to play, which is both a good and bad thing. For starters, you won't have buy H:I at all if you just want to play the multiplayer, but expect it to be a microtransaction-laden mess. They also announced that it will release this holiday....

Then they showed off Forza Horizon 5, and my god, does that game look beautiful! I still haven't even started Forza Horizon 4, which I only bought just to have something to play on my Xbox One X, but just seeing the graphics of this game made me want to get it. They talked about how they spent hours upon hours filming on location in Mexico with 12K cameras to capture as much detail as they could, which they've flawlessly executed into the game. I also like the fact that their focus was being as authentic to the locales as possible, but we'll just have to see if the gameplay will be just as great as it looks. I might hold off if I never get around to starting FH4. 

Psychonauts 2 was one of the few games during the entire E3 that got me to yell out YES! I have been waiting my ENTIRE LIFE for this sequel! I cannot tell you how excited I am for this. Let me just put it into perspective: NOTHING Nintendo showed (which I'll get into later) got the same kind of reaction from me. This is my most wanted game of the year. Anyway, they showed off more gameplay for it and it looks really fantastic. We also have a date for it, which is August 25th, so it comes out really soon! I believe it's a timed exclusives, and as much as I would like to play it on PS5 for Dual Sense feedback, I don't want to wait yet another year just for that. I'm DYING for a reason to play my XSX again!

The Outer Worlds 2 got a trailer reveal, and it was actually pretty hilarious. The narrator was breaking the fourth wall making fun at typical trailer reveals talking about, "Lens flares everywhere! Ooh, mysterious silhouette! We don't have anything to show right now, not even an official name!" It had a very Honest Trailers feel to it, and even though it was just a CG trailer, the humor was greatly appreciated. 

Redfall is a new IP being developed by Arkane Studios, which is a Bethesda studio, so it's MS-owned, and it's really nice to see MS showing off any exclusive new IP. Redfall is basically going to be Dishonored, but with vampires. I'm sure the gameplay will be great, and I'm definitely going to play it since I love vampire games, but if I'm being honest here, I'm not that thrilled about the character design. They just seem obnoxious, like they could get on my nerves after a while. 

Avalanche showed off a teaser trailer for a new game called Contraband, but it was pretty uninteresting. All I can think about when I hear Avalanche is how disappointing Just Cause 4 was. This was followed by another trailer for MS Flight Simulator, which really looks pretty, and will have a Top Gun Maverick tie-in expansion pack. More content was announced for Grounded, which I keep forgetting exists. Sea of Thieves also will being have an expansion featuring Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Then we have Battlefield 2042, which I just don't have interest in. I've never been interested in Battlefield games, because for starters, campaigns are never their focus, and 2042 won't even have a campaign at all. Another thing, every time DICE makes a new Battlefield, I think of a new Mirror's Edge I could have instead. Anyway...

MS rattled off more games coming to Gamepass, and they also announced Hades will come to Xbox with a physical copy, so that's good to hear. 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 had a nice trailer shown, although it contained too much filler for my liking. The gameplay looks interesting, and the graphics are really impressive, but it's just really damned dark. I never played the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but I know it's loved by a lot of people, so I'm sure they'll be excited for it. I'll probably pass, though. It's also going to be called Heart of Chernobyl and will be out August 28th, 2022. 

I was surprised to see a trailer for A Plague Tale: Requiem, and I instantly became hyped for it. I absolutely loved the first game. Its combination of stealth, puzzle solving and fighting off rats combat made for a very tense game. It wasn't the best of games, but it was still a very refreshing title and to see a sequel coming means unique concepts are still being rewarded. The game looks great and I can't wait to get it next year. 

There were also mentions of the Diablo II remake and Age of Empires IV, neither of which I care about. 

Overall rating: B

Square Enix

A new game based on Guardians of the Galaxy got a rather nice segment of time. What I really appreciated about the unveiling was that it wasn't just a CG trailer. They actually showed off some gameplay. But this game apparently has split the audience in two. There's one side of the crowd, myself included, that thinks it actually looks great, but I got to admit the movements look a bit janky. Then, there's the other half which thinks the game looks terrible, and I'm almost positive it's due to people being burned by The Avengers. This game will not be following The Avengers' business model, however, and it's a single player RPG, which already piqued my interest. I'm leaning towards a buy this October 26th. 

A pixel for pixel remaster of the first six Final Fantasy games called Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster was announced but SE seems to have only completely miffed the Internet by releasing them only on Steam and Mobile. This would have been the perfect collection to release on something like the Switch. 

We got a release for the Legend of Mana remake on June 24th, which I don't care about at all, as I actually detest the original game, and we got a Black Panther expansion trailer for The Avengers, which honestly I feel they should just ditch the Avengers games and turn their expansions into full fledged single RPGs. 

Hitman Sniper and Nier Re[in]carnation were announced for mobile, and more information was shown for Final Fantasy Brave Exodus and FFVII: The First Soldier, clearly illustrating a continuous disconnect SE has with mobile gamers and gamers who actually care about SE's games. 

Babylon's Fall was finally shown, Platinum's project for SE. I got to be honest, this was one of the most underwhelming reveals of any game during E3. Maybe if it wasn't by Platinum, it would have seemed more interesting, but this is not up to Platinum's standards. Uninteresting visuals, boring gameplay, and here's where it really gets worse. It will be a live service game. 

So yeah, hard pass. 

Something something Life is Strange remake, something something Life is Strange Colors. For some reason, SE views Life is Strange as a franchise important enough to take up one of the largest portions of their show. In fact, I think they spent more time showing the remake than they did the sequel. Just a weird choice... 

Aaaaand, then there's this... Stranger in Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. This game is just not looking good at all. So, it's a Team Ninja Souls-like game from my understanding that's a prequel to the first Final Fantasy, but the tone and aesthetic of the game is completely off. For one, the main character is going to be one of those characters you're going to be yelling "SHUT UP" at during the course of the game as he won't stop talking about wanting and needing to kill Chaos. The gameplay trailer also was irritating me because the main character just HAS to yell something every time he kills a monster. It doesn't even look visually impressive either, barely more than what the PS3 can do. I did try to download the demo on the PS5, but experienced a common corruption error, so I couldn't play it. SE says it's fixed, so I redownloaded it but at the time of this writing, I haven't started it yet. I don't expect to come out of it the same person as I went in. 

And well.. absolutely no coverage of the upcoming FFXIV expansion Endwalker. You'd think they'd want to as FFXIV is SE's gravy train... 

Rating: D+

Take-Two Interactive

I'm not even sure I want to talk about this one. I will say I did know that Take-Two Interactive did mention they were going to have a diversity, inclusivity, and equity panel at E3, but I didn't know it was going to be their entire 50 minute presentation. When I started watching it, I tried to remain patient but after five minutes, I muted it and played Oddworld: Soulstorm waiting for them to move on to show any upcoming games. I thought maybe they'd at least tease GTA 6, but no. They kept talking for FIFTY minutes about diversity, inclusivity, and equity. It was a Zoom call where everyone had terrible green screening with plain drab white backgrounds making cringe-inducing faces while talking, or looking completely bored while waiting for their turn to speak.

Now, I'm not saying those aren't important things to talk about, because they are. Our games can only benefit by having more people of different backgrounds and experiences, as everyone's cultures mix together to make games feel more authentic and relevant, but was this really the time and place for this? I don't believe so. Sure, have a panel, but don't make people believe your ENTIRE presentation was going to be a panel. You know what venue this would have been perfect for? Ted Talks. 

But Take-Two, you got to understand something here. The more and more these issues are thrust upon the general audience, the more and more it will fall on deaf ears, and the less they'll actually care about these issues. Your average consumer does not want to hear about this. They don't care what the color, gender, or sexual persuasion of the people who makes their games are, only that the games are good. Your number one priority as a business AT A GAMES CONFERENCE is to sell games, and you couldn't have spent even 15 minutes of your presentation showing off any games? 

Rating: F

Capcom

I wasn't really expecting much from Capcom, and I was right not to. Capcom had the shortest show of E3, falling just short of 30 minutes. They started it off by showing footage of Resident Evil Village, a thank you from the producer and announcing upcoming DLC as well as a multiplayer mode called RE:Verse featuring characters from previous Resident Evils. I didn't really care much for it. Then, it was showing off the upcoming sequel to Monster Hunter Stories as well as extra content for Monster Hunter Rise as well as a crossover event for both games. *shrugs*

Next, they spent a good portion of the show talking about The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, a prequel to the first Ace Attorney. You play as Phoenix Wright's ancestor as you solve cases in London. Although the gameplay of Ace Attorney games aren't very exciting to show off during a presentation, I still ended up being excited enough that I actually went and preordered the game. I'm looking forward to it. I'm just wondering if they could have cut the time in half and shown another game as well because....

... they ended the show talking about Street Fighter V and eSports, both of which I don't care about. No other games, no other special announcements, no Mega Man or anything of that nature. Why even show up?

Rating: D

Nintendo

It's safe to say that even if Nintendo's Direct was really bad, it would at least be better than most everyone else's show. That's how awful this E3 has been. Fortunately, however, Nintendo's Direct was rather good. 

It started off by announcing Kazuya as the new DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. I was completely caught off-guard by that, as Tekken barely has a presence on Nintendo platforms. Kazuya looks and plays great, but I just can't get myself back into Super Smash. It also looks like Heihachi will be his final boss, and it looks he can transform into Devil Kazuya for some moves.

Life is Strange Remaster and Colors is coming to the Switch as well as Guardians of the Galaxy, but that will be the cloud version. I really dislike the concept  of cloud version games for Switch, but I digress.

A new entry to the Worms franchise called Worms Rumble was shown, but to be honest, I just miss the old style of Worms games. I'd love to have a remaster of the first Worms. What I saw in Rumble didn't really impress me much. 

A beautifully drawn and animated RPG called Astria Ascending was shown off. Very little was shown, though, so I'll have to keep my eyes open for more information about it. This could be a potential purchase if the gameplay is good enough. 

Two Point Campus was shown, of which I've no interest in as I never played any of the Two Point games, and a remastered collection of Super Monkey Ball games called Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania will release on October 5th. I haven't played a Monkey Ball since the original, so I may think about getting this one. 

Dance Dance 2022 was announced, a new Cruis'n game called Cruis'n Blast which didn't look that good to me, a new Dragon Ball Z game which I don't care about it, and Mario Golf: Super Rush was shown again, for whatever reason. 

There was a Mario Party rehash/remaster called Mario Party Superstars coming out on October 29th. It looks fun, but I haven't been into Mario Party since the first game, so it's a no from me. 

Now, I've known this was in the works for the past several months if you had your ear to the ground, so I wasn't as surprised as other people, but we finally got the new 2D Metroid announced, and it's called Metroid Dread. It's made by the same team that did the remake of Metroid 2: Return of Samus, Samus Returns on the 3DS, which I absolutely loved. Dread looks fantastic, although I'm not really a fan of the white suit. It comes out October 8th, and I'm definitely getting it. Oh, they also acknowledged that Metroid Prime 4 was still in development, but no surprise, nothing to show for. 

WarioWare is making a return with Get It Together. Man, I don't remember the last time I played a WarioWare game, maybe on the Wii? Anyway, this game looks batshit crazy like any WarioWare game, and it's only 50 dollars, so I think I'll bite. 

We finally get a trailer for Shin Megami Tensei V, as well as a release date for November 12th. To be honest, I wasn't really wowed by it. I thought the gameplay was slow and it didn't look visually impressive to me. However, I never played an SMT game before, and I do like the concept of recruiting demons and fusing them. I think I'll make this my first SMT game. 

New Dangaronpa games were announced, a series I know nothing of. Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water was announced, another Wii U port (yay...). Doom Eternal DLC and Tony Hawk 1+2 were announced, so good for those fans. 

Then there's a game called Strange Brigade which looks pretty interesting. It's an action adventure game that looks like it has something to do with treasure hunting. I'll have to keep my eye on that one. Mario + Rabbids Spark of Hope was also shown again, and a surprise announcement that Advance Wars 1 and 2 Remastered would release as one game. Awesome for fans, but I'd rather have a new one. 

Then, there's the Zelda stuff. They said there'd be one last announcement, which was Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity DLC, and I wish they didn't word it that way because I was ready to turn the show off at that point. However, Nintendo usually always ends with "one more thing," which they did. They flat out said they had no game collections or remasters in the works for Zelda's 35th Anniversary, which is disappointing. This means no 2D or 3D collections, no remakes of Ocarina of Time or remasters of Wind Waker. The only thing we're getting is Skyward Sword, which I still am not sure I want to play again. We are, however, getting a Zelda Game and Watch, which will have the first and second NES Zeldas and Link's Awakening. I'm going to try to grab one of these for collector's purposes. 

And to no one's surprise, they ended the show with a new gameplay trailer for the tentative title Breath of the Wild 2. It looks really good so far, and there's some abilities that involve land manipulation. It showed Link rising to the ceiling of a cliff ledge and then phasing through to the other side. I can't wait to see what other cool stuff they have in store for us! Also, they say they're aiming for 2022...

But there's just one thing I have to mention. There are some obvious absentees here. Metroid Prime 4 got acknowledged, which is great, but how about doing the same for Bayonetta 3? Why did they bother showing Mario Golf, a game coming out in just a couple of weeks, but not show more of No More Heroes 3? Are they even working on a new Mario Kart at all? It is been EIGHT years since MK8. I don't care if it's still selling; it's time for a new one. And well, I have to accept the fact that F-Zero is dead, but I can never fully stop hoping that there will be some teaser banner like they did with Metroid Prime 4.. 4 years ago. Maybe that's why they don't bother, because they want to make sure they have a game to show us so we don't have to wait more than four years for it. Or maybe I'm just being delusional. 

Rating: B

So that's all of E3 I watched. Granted, there were a few other shows I could have watched, like the Limited Run presentation and Bandai Namco later today, but I don't really care much for indies or Bandai Namco. I'm sure BN will show off more Elden Ring, so part of me wants to tune in for that, but I don't want to sit through games I know I won't care about to get to it, so E3 wraps up with Nintendo. 

But there's also a critical no-show at this E3 and that's Sony. Sony has always been one of the biggest presenters at E3 since they started at E3 more than 25 years ago by uttering one little thing "299." To be honest, Sony hasn't been as strong at E3s the past few years and they suddenly dipped out and did presentations Direct style, but not even having a State of Play at E3 just feels weird. Sony's not in a very good place right now due to PS5s being hard to find and no real big hitters until at least next year with Horizon: Forbidden West, God of War Ragnarok and Gran Turismo 7(?). But at least Sony understood that if they didn't have much to show, it wasn't worth showing up, unlike Gearbox, Capcom and most notably, Take-Two. 

So this leaves the future of E3 rather bleak. COVID shook the industry so much last year, E3 was canceled entirely leaving publishers to show off their wares in their own digital events, and suddenly, it was proven to many that E3 was no longer needed. Remember how your job insisted you had to attend meetings in person, that information couldn't be disseminated via email and now that COVID hit, it was entirely possibly that every meeting could be virtual, and when virtual meetings couldn'thappen, emails contained everything you needed to know? This is happening here. 

This has been the worst E3 on record. Granted, E3 was slowly declining before COVID, but this year, it's pretty much in its death throes. I doubt we'll get a traditional E3 next year even if COVID has been pretty much eradicated. The best thing to do going forward is for companies to just presenting their own shows as information becomes available. You don't need to wait for E3 to share info, and most importantly, you don't need to pay them overhead to do so. 

We'll see, though.