E3 Special 2021

It’s E3 but not really but who really cares, baby! It’s that special time of year when publishers and platform holders attempt to bedazzle us with an array of fancy trailers to get us excited about games we won’t be playing for at least a year or more. I didn’t bother watching most of these showcases live, preferring instead to catch up on the individual trailers the next day and avoid the fluff.

Horizon: Forbidden West wasn’t actually shown as part of ‘E3’ this year but I’m including it here anyway because it’s one of the few console exclusive releases that actually has me excited. I loved the original when I played it on PC last year and I’d obviously love for the sequel to also arrive on PC in a timely fashion. Sony do seem to be releasing more of their exclusive content on PC now, so I’m hopeful. I really don’t want to have to buy a PS5. I don’t have the f**king space for the bloody thing.

The first major live event was the Summer Games Fest which I started to watch live, got bored and then just caught up the next day. I’m glad I did, because there wasn’t much announced that really caught my eye. Death Stranding: Director’s Cut? The thought of playing an even more self-indulgent version of Death Stranding isn’t exactly appealing. Evil Dead: The Game looked kind of neat, but poor Bruce Campbell sounded so bored reading that terrible script. Endless Dungeon looked fun, but not really for me because I have no friends. I guess Elden Ring was the game everyone was waiting to see but I can’t say I really cared too much.

Ubisoft Forward was up next but I don’t think there was a single announcement I’m even slightly excited about. Far Cry 6? Ha! Ha! Ha! Bloodline – a Watch Dogs Legion DLC featuring Aidan Pearce, my favourite misunderstood protagonist. Every so often I get the urge to write a long essay about how good his character was in the original Watch Dogs but I don’t bother because nobody would read it and nobody would believe me. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora? Seriously?

It’s X-Box and Bethesda time! One of only two showcases I watched live and the only one I didn’t regret. Because damn, was this a good show! It was easily the best advert for Game Pass yet. Hell, even I seriously started thinking about picking up a Series X with a GP sub. The value is just ridiculous.

Starfield rustled some jimmies by confirming what we all already knew aside from some deluded Sony fanboys – it’s going to be an X-Box / PC exclusive. Microsoft didn’t drop billions of dollars on Bethesda to do a favour for their competition. Redfall is a game. It got a trailer to close out the show but didn’t actually tell us much. Is it really just another co-op L4D style shooter? But with vampires? Is that it?

Stalker 2 looked okay, but I’m wary of the Metro vibes I got from it given how boring and mediocre Exodus was. Contraband was a trailer for something. Probably a game. Atomic Heart looked weird in a good way. Replaced looked really good. I’m interested in that one.

Age of Empires 4 is a thing. I really liked Age of Empires 2 when it came out. I’ve still got the box and its expansion on my shelf. I’ve not tried the HD remaster though. This new one might be cool. The Outer Worlds 2 was announced. Hope it’s not as dull as the first one. Forza Horizon 5 looked a lot of fun. It might actually be the first racing game I’m tempted to jump into in a long time.

We didn’t get to see any of the Halo Infinite campaign, but we did see and learn a lot more about the free to play multiplayer. I’ve mentioned before in my Halo MCC reviews that I’ve never really been interested in Halo MP, but I have to say, everything I’ve seen for the Infinite MP looks pretty damn great and the perfect balance / alternative to –

Battlefield 2042. Oh shit, son. Given the lack of campaign and pricing, plus how BFV was pretty much dropped when EA deemed it not successful enough, I can’t say I had high hopes for BF2042. But damn, what a trailer. I can’t lie – I’m pretty excited for this one.

Square Enix? Nope. The PC Gaming Show? I can’t believe I wasted my time watching that garbage live. Okay, to be fair, Humankind looks like it might be good. And I’m curious to see more of Ixion. Devolver Digital did their usual parody / piss take video thing but the sound quality was pretty bad so I didn’t catch most of what was being said. I also don’t recall any of the games, so maybe they need to tone that shit down a little next year.

And finally we have Nintendo. I guess you could say they had a good show, but we didn’t see any Bayonetta 3 so I’m not happy. Metroid Dread looks pretty good. It reminded me that I really need to replay Fusion and the Prime games. And as I’m a fan of the GBA Advance Wars, I’m certainly interested in a Switch remake, even though I’m not totally sold on the new art style or the RRP. I might wait for a sale on that one.

Skyward Sword HD? Eh, I can just play the original. It will give me a reason to use my Wii U again. The Breath of the Wild 2 trailer was great, but that’s still a long way out ‘aiming for 2022’ so I’m not going to get too excited yet.

And that’s all folks! I’ll see you next year when we might actually get to see some gameplay for some of these games. Maybe even Bayonetta 3. A man can dream.