What happened at E3 2019 ?

This has been the 25th consecutive that gathered gamers and developers from all around the world.

Lets start with the beginning..

Electronic Arts

EA were among the several big names that decided to go rogue and do their own thing this year, and because this is EA we are talking about here, they wanted to spoil the build-up and start a day early which failed miserably because it ended with an shouting match. The big story of course, was Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, which is set for release on the 15th of November this year. We were treated to almost 15. minutes of game play and it was OK, kind of.., It was OK. hmm…

Also on the menu we had Battlefield 5., where we’ll be touring the Pacific in autumn this year so that’s fun but as for the rest …Well Fifa’s volta mode is basically FIFA street and also the Sims 4. showed up with nothing special, well they were driving speedboats…. I said, nothing special.

MICROSOFT

Keanu Reeves appeared and he was genuinely excited to be there which is a rare thing indeed for any celebrity E3 appearances. The fact that this was a highlight of the show says … a lot.

We had a whole bunch of games to get through and we tried, we really did. But, with our best efforts to keep up, we didn’t make it. Obsidian entertainments the Outer World, one of the more exciting new IPs kicked things off and we got a release date being 25th of October 2019. Game play looked alright too, so that’s something – and thankfully that trend would continue with Cyberpunk 2077. which is set to see the light at 16th of April 2020.

Also, Gears 5. is coming out on the 10th of September this year! That’s soon.

Halo Infinite here we go – looks visually stunning but of course, there is no game play … But, we do know that this will be a launch title for the upcoming new Xbox console project Scarlet, and yes, you’ve guessed it , we didn’t see it in action.

BETHESDA

„We are all BETHESDA!“, so we are reminded of every 10. minutes with multiple unconvincing community pieces. The glitchy mutated elephant in the room of course was addressed early as Todd Howard mentioned Fallout 76. having a lot of difficulties at launch and a lot of well-deserved criticism. In fairness, they didn’t shy away and announce their intentions to stick with the game post launch with the big announcement being the wastelanders updates . This is set to include a revamped main quest , various new toys and choice and consequences – whatever that means… But the biggest features were NPCs and full dialogue trees whoo-hoo. Let’s all cheer fundamental game mechanics from 1990s elder scrolls. The trailer hit the nail on the head at one point – with some voiceover saying :“ I don’t think anyone expected for people to come back.“ At least, they’re making amends and continuingly free updates.

Bethesda also announced their bandwagon jumping battle royale mode, and as for the rest of the show most of the runtime went to existing game updates, the Elder Scrolls Blade side-project.

In the absence of major mic drop announcements , Doom Eternal impressed with a lengthy showcase and maybe even a coherent story. Of the few new IPs on offer most exciting was a Death Loop from the Arkane studios showing a time bending cycle of two rivals incessantly shooting at each other.

A trailer for another new title – Ghost Line Tokyo though intriguing, was arguably overshadowed by its brief but delightful introduction from Akuma Nakamura, whos nervous but genuine enthusiasm instantly won over the internet.

UBISOFT

Not the strangest conference we’ve seen seeing as plenty of the show was fifty shades of Tom Clancy, but scattered in amongst the generic shooters worthy typical sprinkles of Ubisoft’s insanity – this included the annual JUST DANCE circus act. It began with the unveiling of brand new game Assassin’s Creed symphony… A soundtrack we weren’t expecting was the intro to it’s „Always sunny in Philadephia“ followed by show co-creator Rob McElhenney.
We did see a few games from ubisoft though, and even a gameplay amazingly. Watch Dogs Legion was a strong first reveal despite several leaked details beforehand. Location for the game was confirmed to be a London in a post brexit view of Britain. Aaaand – you can play as anyone – this means you can be even a Granny Assassin.

Ubisoft had a particularly leaky build-up to E3 with the roller derby, darby game revealed to be roller champions basically. And the breath of the wild clone that was teased, was shown off as Gods and Monsters – and it looked like a welcome change from the hundreds of monotone, military shooters. Ubisoft even annouced the Elite Squad featuring all your favourite generic shooter stereotypes.

Square Enix

Instead of showing us new games for the biggest industry event of the year, Square Enix decided on a bold tactic of showing us games that already existed. But jokes aside, one game in particular caught our eyes, an actual remake that stole the conference from the start as soon as we saw a familiar looking menu screen – the Final Fantasy 7. was shown off after a very long wait and we kind of understand what look so long in a way because it looks absolutely stunning after some recognisable moments seen in super high-definition future vision. We were also treated to an in-depth combat showcase with a mix of real-time and slightly turn-based – well it’s not really turn-based… it is just „slowed“ down.  The new remake is still episodic with the first episode being released on the 3rd of March 2020. with an estimated two blu-ray discs worth of content. Other confirmed releases include Final Fantasy 8., Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and The Last Remnant. Amongst other games worth mentioning there is new Marvel’s Avengers, but not as you’ve seen them before. All trailers, no gameplay, so we’ll have to wait for it till 15th of May 2020.

NINTENDO

Considering Nintendo blurted out one of their biggest reveals a week before E3, during their Pokemon direct showcase – everyone else was wondering what they had left in their pipeline. We got a very brief confirmation that they’re working on a Zelda sequel to breath of the wild which is good to know. It was certainly one of the strongest showings this year, but like the other conferences Nintendo show lacked real industry shaking bombshell announcements. But at least, it was well directed, with few Bowser jokes which gave audience an opportunity to chear about. Biggest title they’ve announced must be Animal Crossing, which set to be released on 20th of March 2020. Luigi is torturing himself again, in yet another release of Luigi’s Mansion 3. And we so a remake of Link’s Awakening complete with a Zelda dungeon maker section and overwhelmingly cute art style . Elsewhere we had a numerous JRPG trailers, too many to announce them all, a comeback of retro classic Contra and we all marveled at the deceptive power of the Nintendo switch with ports like The Witcher 3, Alien Isolation and Doom Eternal.