E3 Special 2020

It’s time for another E3 Special in which I . . . oh. There was no E3 this year. But did anyone really miss it? If I recall, Sony and EA didn’t even bother to turn up to the last one. That said, it was kind of useful to have all the major players announce and reveal everything within the context of a coordinated event. Unlike this year, where everything is split between odd videos and streams and it’s hard to keep track of what’s happening and when.

Inside X-Box was the first big online event in which we expected to see the first ‘next-gen’ gameplay of the upcoming new X-Box Series X . . . is that really what it’s called? Or did I just make that up? But the event was a big disappointment, as we didn’t really see anything ‘next-gen’ at all. The notes I made following the event just read ‘I recall nothing’.

And the same applies to the PC Gaming Show which, as now seems to be tradition, was awful and awkward and I just spun through a replay of the stream as quickly as possible. I guess we saw a little of Evil Genius 2 (looks fun) and a little more of Total War Saga: Troy. Troy looks really bad. If you’ve read my previous post about Troy you’ll know I was looking for something new and unique about Troy in terms of battle mechanics.

Troy, given the setting, could have been a fantastic opportunity to experiment with an entirely new approach to sieges. But instead, we just get . . . siege towers? Seriously? And ‘earthquakes’? Which sounds to me like the ‘damage walls’ agent ability from Total War: Warhammer 2. What’s the point of a spin-off series in which you ‘experiment’ with new features and mechanics if you don’t actually do that at all?

EA had their own showcase, but the only title that really caught my eye was Star Wars: Squadrons, and that was primarily due to the full VR support. Flying an X-Wing in VR sounds absolutely baller. I just hope the single player content isn’t just a glorified tutorial, and that the MP modes also support bots so I can keep playing solo even if player numbers dwindle.

Speaking of VR, there was a VR dedicated showcase but the only title that really caught my eye was Panzer Dragoon: Voyage Record which appears to be some kind of remake of key moments from the Panzer Dragoon games in VR? I’m honestly not sure because we didn’t really learn or see anything of the game at all. But it’s Panzer Dragoon, so it’s got my attention.

And then we have Sony who revealed the new PlayStation 5. I can’t say the console, by design, is much of a looker, but what really matters is the games. Kena: Bridge of Spirits looked neat but it was Village AKA Resident Evil 8 that really caught my eye. There was also Horizon: Forbidden West which looked pretty good and I’ll be sure to pick up and play the original when it releases on Steam.

Am I interested in getting a PS5 though? Maybe. I think the key selling point for me would be backwards compatibility. There are a handful of games on PS4 I’d like to play, but not enough to justify purchasing the console. But if the PS5 supports those games, in addition to having several exclusives of its own I want to play, I’ll certainly think hard about picking one up.

And finally we have Cyberpunk 2077 which has now been delayed until November, so I really need to avoid contracting and dying from Coronavirus before then. The game looks fantastic. I kind of don’t want to see too much more prior to release because I don’t want to spoil anything. My main concern is how my PC will handle it. I’m hoping I can at least run it on High at 1080p. I can live with that.