E3 Special 2015

It’s time for another E3 Special! I watched most of the major conferences live and caught up on the few I missed. Overall, I have to say this was a pretty good year for everyone. Let’s start with the Bethesda stuff.

They revealed the new DOOM which was met with loud cheers as the player chainsawed demons into pieces. I saw a hilarious article online condemning the ‘extreme violence’ and ‘satanic imagery’ and wondered if it was 1993 again. Are we still doing this? I mean, it’s a game about a space marine going into hell to fight cybernetic demons who shoot laser beams – what kind of twat takes this shit seriously? I guess it’s nice to know DOOM still has the power to shock.

It didn’t really shock me though. I thought it looked a little tame. Almost quaint, in fact. And I can’t say I particularly cared for what I saw. The demo had an odd piss filter to it which I didn’t really like, and player movement seemed strangely sluggish. Weapons were big, loud and as messy as you’d expect, but the constant (and not particularly varied) animated ‘kill moves’ were a bit tedious. I didn’t think the weapons, environments or enemies were particularly inspired either. Eh, I’ll wait and see.

Dishonored 2! It was only a CG trailer, so there’s not much to say, but I’m pleased we’re getting a new Dishonored game. From what I understand, you can choose to play as (or will switch between?) Corvo and Emily. Which is neat, especially if they have different skills that let you approach missions in different ways.

I’m not quite sure how that will work within the story, but I was always more interested in the world of Dishonored rather than the story anyway. Also, will they be voiced this time, or will both be mute weirdos like Corvo in the original?

They unveiled a new mobile/tablet based Fallout game which looked kind of fun, but I don’t own a tablet or a smartphone, so... I was more interested in the Fallout 4 stuff which is looking pretty good. Okay, so in a lot of ways, it’s actually just looking like a somewhat prettier Fallout 3, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing because I liked FO3.

The new crafting and settlement building stuff looked fun. And there’s a dog! Who I’ll probably leave at home because his AI will be shit and he’ll keep getting in my way or running into fences. And I’m not sure about the ‘voiced’ protagonist thing. It doesn’t seem quite right and I wonder how much it will limit dialogue options. I think it’s the story and quests I’m most interested in, because that’s what will really make or break the game for me.

What’s next? Microsoft! They announced X-Box One backwards compatibility with 360 titles – sorry, some 360 titles – although if it’s anything like original X-Box compatibility with the 360, half of them probably won’t bloody work or will actually run worse. It’s a nice thing, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not convinced me to upgrade to an X-BOX One. Hell, I can’t remember the last time I used my 360 anyway.

They showed some Halo 5 which is…more Halo, I guess, if you like that. There was a Dark Souls 3 trailer, but I’ve not even played DS2 yet and I’m honestly in no great hurry. And do we really want to see this turn into another yearly franchise? They ended the show with a look at Gears 4, which aside from the characters and weapons, didn’t really look anything like a Gears game in terms of aesthetic. It also had the annoying ‘press Y to look at cool thing’ going on far too often.

We also saw a new Tomb Raider gameplay demo, but it was really more of a long cut-scene with the occasional ‘press X to not die’ moment. I hope it comes to PC eventually, because I would like to play it. Even though I had a lot of issues with the last one, I still enjoyed it and would like to see what they’ve done with the sequel.

The only thing that really caught my eye during the Microsoft conference was a trailer for a game called Recore. But it was just another CG trailer, so…

The EA conference was so f**king dull it nearly put me to sleep, especially the moment they rolled out Pele for a mumbled conversation about football. Of course, you can’t just tell Pele to shut up on a live stage in front of thousands, so we all had to put up with his doddery ramblings until they could politely usher him away. Who thought this was a good idea? It was almost as bad as Ubisoft wheeling out some singer I’ve never heard of, who couldn’t even bloody sing. Wasn’t this a video game show?

EA teased a new Mass Effect. The less I say about that, the better. There was lots of SPORTS but I nodded off through most of those. Thankfully, they showed off two games a lot of people have been waiting to see – Mirror’s Edge 2 (or Catalyst or whatever, because it’s not a sequel or a reboot or just f**k right off, I’m calling it ME2) and Star Wars: Battlefront.

Battlefront looked really good, except it was one of those scripted Battlefield style demos where everyone plays as a team and you know matches with real players won’t actually resemble anything like it at all. Mirror’s Edge 2 is going all open world from what I understand. And that could be kind of neat, the whole ‘no levels’ thing.

But that said, the structured missions of the original gave the game a nice variety of environments and set-pieces. This included internal environments. How will the new game handle the transition between internal and external in a single open world? Or will it all just be rooftops with the occasional sprint through a corridor? I’m open to the notion of an open world Mirror’s Edge – hell, I think I even suggested such a thing back in my review – but it was the structured missions of ME that gave the game pace and variety, and that’s not something I want to lose.

Also, what did they do to Faith? Some of the promo shots make her face look really weird. Why did they need to redesign her appearance at all? She looked fine.

Ubisoft revealed another South Park RPG, but without Obsidian at the helm. I don’t know…as much as I liked The Stick of Truth, I’m not sure I care much about a sequel. They also showed off a new game called For Honor, which was probably the highlight of their show for me. Vikings vs Samurai vs Knights? Sold!

We saw some more of The Division which looks progressively worse every year and some more of the new Rainbow Six which still looks nice – if you play with friends. Because if you don’t you’ll probably be boned. We also saw a new Ghost Recon which looked okay, but I think it was another co-op focused title which is no good for me because I have no friends. Thanks for reminding me, you f**ks.

Sony probably had the best conference. The Last Guardian looked good but it was Horizon: Zero Dawn that I was most interested in. Hunting robot dinosaurs in a post-apocalyptic future? Neat! Shame I’ll probably never play it because it’s PS4 exclusive. Well, maybe I’ll pick one up eventually, but not for just one or two games. No Man’s Sky still looks okay. Oh, and they also tossed in a little bit about Shenmue 3. No big deal, or anything. 

Anything else? Deus Ex: Mankind Divided had a trailer, but I haven’t seen any proper gameplay footage yet. And it doesn’t look like we’ll see any Total War: Warhammer footage until July. Oh well, I think that’s about it. The show is still going on so maybe I’ll see more stuff that interests me, but that’s about it for now. Like I said, a pretty good year.