In past years, Sony’s E3 press conference has often been one of my favorites of the show. Let’s see if they can deliver again this year!

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EA
Bethesda
Microsoft
PC Gaming
Ubisoft
Sony
Nintendo Treehouse & Miscellaneous

Sony’s E3 2016 Press Conference

Sony’s press conference had an unusual opening. A extremely sinister man walked up the aisle (seriously, he was a cape away from looking like a video game villain) and began conducting an orchestra, which launched into equally sinister music complete with chanting.

This concert went on for a bit.

At last, they shifted to gameplay footage from a new God of War game. I’ve never played a God of War game, but it didn’t look like I expected. Still, it was interesting. Definitely a strong start for Sony’s show.

Next, they showed a zombie-ish game called Days Gone. It was one of the weakest announcements of the show for me, but they soon switched to The Last Guardian. The Last Guardian, which hung in Limbo for so long, is finally coming out on October 25. I still haven’t played Ico or Shadow of the Colossus, but I’ll be interested to see reviews of The Last Guardian.

The best thing about Sony’s press conference was that it was almost pure gameplay. Instead of filling up time with features, hardware, and nice words, the majority of the show focused on trailer after trailer. (And when people did walk on stage, epic music from the orchestra accompanied them.)

Horizon: Zero Dawn was a fan-favorite last year even if it didn’t catch me, and it was up next. Then, they showed a game I’m pretty interested in, Detroit: Become Human.

I was intrigued by it before, but the new trailer was really cool.

And then… they showed a horror game.

It was pretty creepy. It held my attention. I wanted to know what it was. Could it be Silent Hill? A scary new IP?

No. It was…

I couldn’t believe my eyes when that named appeared.

Resident Evil? Resident Evil that looks like horror again?! I want to believe.

There’s a PS4 demo available to PlayStation Plus users tonight, so we should hear more about the gameplay soon. It also will be compatible with PlayStation VR.

Some people are upset since it looks like it’s a first-person game, but I’m too excited over the possibility of survival horror Resident Evil 7!

Ahem. They talked more about PlayStation VR and compatible games, including a shooter called Farpoint, an X-Wing VR mission for Star Wars Battlefront, and a Batman VR game.

Final Fantasy XV joined the VR crowd, too, with the Final Fantasy XV VR Experience where you play as Prompto.

Seems kinda weird to me, but I’m still not convinced VR is the way of the future.

After all that excitement, they were due to show something I wouldn’t find as interesting… so it was time for an extended look at Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, as well as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered.

And then… music started playing.

Familiar music.

Crash Bandicoot music.

So I freaked out. Again.

Now, the main announcement was that Crash Bandicoot is going to be in the new Skylanders game, Skylanders Imaginators, but that’s not all. Oh no, no, not at all.

The original Crash Bandicoot trilogy is being remastered for the PS4. The remastered Crash Bandicoot collection will be out in 2017.

Yeah! Crash is back! It’s not the same as a new game, but this is a definite step in the right direction.

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens took the stage next, but soon it was time for a legend to appear!

Epic music played as Hideo Kojima walked onto the stage, and he finally revealed the mysterious game he has in the works.

Wow. Death Stranding.

I’m not sure what it is. I’m not sure what I just watched. But I’m seriously intrigued. It definitely looks interesting, and I want to know more. I wanted to see more right then. I want to see more now!

Then they showed a Spiderman game for the PS4, and returned to Days Gone for some gameplay I didn’t care about. A final montage of PlayStation games closed the conference.

Well, that was exciting.

As far as I’m concerned, Sony has claimed the lead this E3. Unless Nintendo has something spectacular in store, Sony won for me. So much from this conference looked awesome, and I really appreciate the focus on trailers. Game after game after game.

(I wish they showed more Kingdom Hearts, but we can’t have everything.)

What did you think of Sony’s E3 2016 press conference?

Microsoft’s press conference was third this year. In the past, I’ve found their showings to be decent. I went into this one hoping more than anything for a solid look at Scalebound!

Table of Contents

EA
Bethesda
Microsoft
PC Gaming
Ubisoft
Sony
Nintendo Treehouse & Miscellaneous

Microsoft’s E3 2016 Press Conference

Microsoft’s show began with a look at the new, slim Xbox One model, called the Xbox One S. It’s smaller, improved, and only costs $299, which makes it a tempting possibility if I get an Xbox One.

On the other hand, the majority of games shown at the press conference are for both the Xbox One and Windows 10, part of the new Xbox Play Anywhere feature. The basic idea is that when you buy a game, you’ll have access to it from both your Xbox One and Windows 10. Cross-play is also supported.

The first game shown was Gears of War 4. I’ve never played the Gears of War games, but it looks interesting enough.

A Gears character, General RAAM, is also joining the lineup of Killer Instinct. After a little Killer Instinct footage, they moved on to Forza Horizon 3, to which I devoted as much attention as I do to any racing game: not much.

But do you remember ReCore? It looked pretty cool last E3, and it still does now.

It’s due out September 13, so it isn’t that far away. And speaking of September releases, next on the stage was Square Enix with new Final Fantasy XV footage.

I’m excited for Final Fantasy XV. I really am. But the new gameplay footage was… not the greatest. It was a boss battle against Titan. They probably should have picked something else to show.

Since it’s not a normal battle, it came across as boring and a little disorienting. The player seemed to be struggling, too. All in all, not a great showing for Final Fantasy XV, although it’s probably the presentation more than the gameplay itself.

Next up, a new expansion for The Division, followed by gameplay footage from Battlefield 1. Then they shifted gears to talk about Xbox Live’s upcoming new features, as well as updates to Minecraft.

The Minecraft section included a gameplay video that also had its share of cringe-worthy moments, but maybe it’s because I’m not a Minecraft fan.

After announcing customizable controllers, it was time for the creepy portion of the show! First, a trailer for Inside that showed next to nothing, and then (after a montage of indie games) a delightfully disturbing trailer for We Happy Few.

So, so creepy.

This was the high point of the show, because what name appeared next on the screen? CD Projekt RED! And what were they announcing?

Gwent!

Okay, so Gwent as a standalone game was pretty much leaked already, but it was still cool to see the announcement.

I haven’t played Gwent yet, but I just finished The Witcher (yes, the first one) yesterday. Expect my review after all our E3 excitement. Anyway, you can sign up for the Gwent beta here.

Next up was Tekken 7, then Dead Rising 4, and then the game I was really waiting for, Scalebound!

Oh, Scalebound…

I love PlatinumGames. I want to love Scalebound. And the gameplay they showed looked pretty cool.

The protagonist, though…

I still don’t like him. He’s not endearing the way Bayonetta is.

Every time Scalebound is shown, I just want to like the main character.

Well, Rare took the stage next to show gameplay from their pirate MMO, Sea of Thieves. The gameplay looks interesting, although the people playing it made me cringe so much, I wondered if it was a parody of gamers.

But hey, it made me smile.

I have no interest in State of Decay, but then they showed Halo Wars 2. RTS games and I don’t get along, but I always like seeing some Halo.

And then Microsoft concluded its shown by revealing Project Scorpio, the next Xbox One console. It’s supposed to be much more powerful, and it seems to occupy the middle ground between being an upgrade and a new console. Exciting, but… won’t it make players reluctant to get one of the current models?

Microsoft’s show was really hit or miss for me. There were some great moments coupled with some bad moments and a lot of things that were mixed (like the Final Fantasy XV demo). But at least we can play Gwent!

What did you think of Microsoft’s E3 2016 press conference?