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E3 2019 Part 3: Bethesda’s Press Conference and Devolver’s Annual Insanity

 Video games  7 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 092019
 

Table of Contents

EA
Microsoft
Bethesda
Devolver Digital
PC Gaming
Limited Run Games
Ubisoft
Square Enix
Nintendo
Nintendo Treehouse

Bethesda’s E3 2019 Press Conference

So Bethesda’s press conferences are in an odd spot for me, because I’ve played almost zero Bethesda games. At the same time, however, sometimes they have some cool announcements.

They talked about Elder Scrolls Blades and how it’s coming to the Switch, went into great detail about new content coming to Fallout 76, including actual NPCs (which got a lot of cheers) and a battle royale mode.

Next came the first new game announcement, and one I’m actually pretty interested in. Shinji Mikami’s company Tango Gameworks has a new game coming out called GhostWire: Tokyo. It’s action adventure instead of survival horror (or action horror pretending to be survival horror), but it has a supernatural plot and really caught my attention.

After that, they went back to their already-released games briefly to introduced the next expansion for Elder Scrolls Online. Then they announced a new Commander Keen game… which is unfortunately a free-to-play mobile game, although it did look cute.

They discussed new content for Elder Scrolls Legends, a new expansion coming to Rage 2, a VR Wolfenstein game and more about Wolfenstein Youngblood, and then it was time for another new game announcement.

Deathloop is another game involving time loops, or maybe just death loops? It’s about two assassins trying to kill each other to end the cycle they’re stuck in. The gameplay alone wouldn’t have won me over, but the premise is interesting enough to catch my attention.

Then, after talking about their cloud streaming technology Orion for a while, they moved on to Doom Eternal.

Some parts of Doom Eternal sound cool, but I’m just not sure it’s my sort of game. They showed a couple new trailers, announced a November 22 release date, and revealed the multiplayer mode “Battlemode.”

Bethesda’s press conference ended just in time for Devolver’s to begin.

Devolver Digital’s Big Fancy Press Conference 2019

Two years ago, I did not know what to expect from Devolver Digital’s “press conference.” Now I do, so I went in expecting and hoping for pure insanity, and I got it.

This year, they held a “Devolver Direct,” parodying Nintendo’s presentation style. Amid all the insanity, they actually announced a few games. First up was a multiplayer game called Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, which I’m not interested in.

Then they parodied the numerous digital game stores and launchers, as well as bootleg games, by announcing “Devolver Bootleg.” I came very close to repeating last year’s mistake in which I blogged about Bethesda’s “Skyrim Very Special Edition” joke before learning the next day that it was an actual game. This time, I checked. And yes, Devolver Bootleg actually exists.

Next up was a “reverse horror game” called Carrion, followed by an arcade cabinet announcement that is also not a joke, a new expansion for The Messenger, and a new trailer for My Friend Pedro.

And then this year’s story concluded.

Sure, they didn’t show a lot of games, but it was a wild ride. Of all the press conferences so far, Devolver’s is certainly the one that made me smile the most.

What did you think of Bethesda’s press conference? What about the Devolver Digital’s increasing spiral into insanity? Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to discuss the next four E3 press conferences!

E3 2019 Part 2: Microsoft’s Press Conference

 Video games  7 Responses »
Jun 092019
 

Table of Contents

EA
Microsoft
Bethesda
Devolver Digital
PC Gaming
Limited Run Games
Ubisoft
Square Enix
Nintendo
Nintendo Treehouse

Microsoft’s E3 2019 Press Conference

While I still don’t have an Xbox One, Microsoft has had some pretty good press conferences in the past few years. I went into this press conference pretty excited, especially since with Sony not having an E3 conference this year, a lot of multiplatform games should be shown at Microsoft’s show.

They started out with a new trailer for The Outer Worlds, which looks like it could be entertaining.

Next up was a game called Bleeding Edge, which doesn’t seem like my sort of thing.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps looks pretty cool, and will be out February 11. I still want to play the first one, too.

Minecraft Dungeons was revealed for September 2020, some sort of Minecraft RPG from the looks of it.

After talking a little bit about Xbox and the press conference, they showed another trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. After learning more about this game, I’ve become more interested in it, although I’m still not completely convinced.

The next trailer caught my attention right away, because it was clearly a horror game and seemed pretty creepy. Apparently it’s a Blair Witch game. I know pretty much nothing about the Blair Witch franchise, but the game did look interesting, so I’ll be keeping my eye on that.

(Also, apparently it’s from Bloober Team, the developers behind Layers of Fear and Observer.)

Then it was time for a game lots of people are looking forward to: Cyberpunk 2077. The trailer was cool, but it hasn’t really grabbed me yet. Maybe I’m not enough of a cyberpunk fan. Anyway, it’s coming out on April 16.

They showed an indie game that looks like it could be good called Spiritfarer, a new Battletoads game, and an unusual RPG with a hand-drawn style called RPG Time: The Legend of Wright. They followed this with a montage of indie games coming to Xbox One.

This led into their Xbox Game Pass segment, including the news that Xbox Game Pass is coming to PC, with the open beta starting now. Moving on, they showed Flight Simulator, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, and Wasteland 3, none of which interest me (although the Wasteland 3 trailer was entertaining).

Now, we knew they’d be showing Psychonauts 2 at E3, but I wasn’t expecting the next announcement: Double Fine has joined Xbox Game Studios. I’m not sure what Microsoft acquiring Double Fine will mean for their future games, but the Psychonauts 2 trailer was cool and has me pretty excited for the game.

I’ve never gotten into the Lego games, but they announced Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. After that was a new Dragon Ball Z game, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot.

The next game is one that looks like it could be pretty interesting. Called 12 Minutes, it follows a man stuck in a time loop. Time travel stories can be hit or miss, but the short teaser left me intrigued. I’d like to learn more about how it plays, but right now it has my attention.

After another indie game called Way to the Woods, they moved on to Gears 5 with an extremely surreal trailer. And… is it really called “Gears 5”? Not “Gears of War 5”? A trailer for a mode called “Escape” was also shown.

They got back to Gears eventually, after first showing a new Xbox One controller, Dying Light 2, and Forza Horizon 4: Lego Speed Champions, which I definitely didn’t expect. But then they were back to Gears with Gears POP!, which had a cute trailer that didn’t quite carry over to the gameplay.

I have no interest in State of Decay 2: Heartland or CrossfireX… or in the game shown in between, but I know a lot of people have been dying for Phantasy Star Online 2 to come west, so that was cool to see.

And then…

Tales of Arise!!!

Okay, it would have been a super cool surprise, but I saw the leaks a couple days ago and knew it was coming. I’m still really excited for the next Tales game. They’ve finally moved away from the art style used for the past several titles, giving it an almost Xenoblade-like look.

I’m tentatively interested in Borderlands 3, and while I’d heard rumors of the new Borderlands 2 DLC coming out, I didn’t realize it was going to be free. Yes, not only did Borderlands 3 get a new trailer, but “Commander Lilith & The Fight for Sanctuary” is available now as free Borderlands 2 DLC.

Along with Tales of Arise, the other game I saw leaked ahead of time was Elden Ring, the collaboration between FromSoftware and George R.R. Martin. I’m not actually a fan of A Song of Fire and Ice or Game of Thrones, so I’m not jumping for joy over the collaboration like a lot of people are, but the trailer was cool.

Finally, they teased the next Xbox console, codenamed Project Scarlett. It will launch holiday 2020, with one launch title already announced… Halo Infinite (which is still coming to Xbox One and PC as well)!

When we first saw Halo Infinite, it looked pretty different from any past Halo game. The new trailer still looks different, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be radically different now. I never did play Halo 5, since I don’t have an Xbox One, but I’m interested to see where Halo Infinite is going.

And that was Microsoft’s E3 2019 press conference!

Some good announcements in there, maybe not quite as many exciting surprises as I’d hoped for, but Tales of Arise, Psychonauts 2, 12 Minutes, Blair Witch, Elden Ring, and Halo Infinite all made it worth watching for me. What did you think of Microsoft’s E3 show?

E3 2019 Part 1: EA’s Live Streams

 Video games  10 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 082019
 

Table of Contents

EA
Microsoft
Bethesda
Devolver Digital
PC Gaming
Limited Run Games
Ubisoft
Square Enix
Nintendo
Nintendo Treehouse

EA’s E3 2019 Live Streams

Yesterday, I mistakenly said EA was having a press conference today… because I thought they were.

Instead, EA opted for a series of “EA Play” live streams starting at 12:15 PM ET, with specific games being shown in half hour segments:

12:15 PM: Countdown to EA PLAY
12:30 PM: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
1:00 PM: Apex Legends
1:30 PM: Battlefield V
2:00 PM: EA SPORTS FIFA
2:30 PM: EA SPORTS Madden NFL
3:00 PM: The Sims 4

On one hand, this is kind of disappointing. On the other hand, unless they have surprise announcements in between segments, we know exactly what parts to watch. (Their website even outright suggest you tune in only for the games that interest you.)

I usually go through EA’s live streams being excited for one or two things and then write about how the others were games that don’t appeal to me, while waiting patiently to see if anything else interesting will pop up. This time, I can say in advance I’m excited for Jedi: Fallen Order and then nothing else.

Let’s take a look.

It started out with a bit of talking about the planned live streams, and then we got a countdown until the Star Wars coverage would begin. (Did EA take inspiration from how Sony handled its show last year?)

Finally, it was time for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. They cheered over single-player games not being dead, so it really seems like they’re pushing that idea with this game. Then it was time for a 15-minute gameplay demo.

The most interesting part was the Force powers, since it looks like you’ll have a lot of different Force abilities and be able to use them in creative ways to fight your enemies. The lightsaber combat also looks like it’ll be handled well. It reminds me a bit of The Force Unleashed. Not a lot of details about the story from this demo, although the main character is accompanied by a droid companion.

They also confirmed that there will be no dark side path, with the rather dubious explanation that they need the character to be in a certain place in canon. This does suggest they’re really planning on a story-focused experience… but I can’t help but find their reasoning faulty since past Star Wars games have simply had one outcome be canon and the others non-canon.

Anyway, Fallen Order seems like a fine game, and I’m still interested, but I’m not dying to get it.

Once the Star Wars segment ended, it was time for the remaining games on the list – none of which I’m interested in. So that’s it for our EA coverage! Come back tomorrow to talk about Microsoft, Bethesda, and Devolver Digital’s press conferences.

What did you think of EA’s live streams and Jedi: Fallen Order?

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