E3 2016, Day 0 - EA and Bethesda
E3. Often referred to as gaming Christmas, is probably my favourite week of the year. 2016’s expo once a again had a great showing from a wide array of publishers, with a truckload of information being released on the public about over 100 upcoming games.
This year my coverage is post-E3, to give the gaming world and myself time to decompress and distance from the manufactured hype a little. I’m planning to break it down by day, talking about the conferences and other important info as it happened.
E3 this year started once again on Sunday, with 2 press conferences - EA during the day, Bethesda during the evening.
Let’s break it down.
EA
Games shown
Titanfall 2, Madden 17, Mass Effect Andromeda, FIFA 17, Fe, Star Wars x3, Battlefield 1.
Breakdown
As far as conferences go, EA’s was completely by the numbers. You had your sports games which included the usual eSports talk and a somewhat awkward stage presence from someone outside the company (this year was an over the top performance by the actor playing the ain character in FIFA - more on that in a moment), You had your small indie game in Fe which was meant to be this years Unravel and you had showings of the next entries in EA’s large franchises.
Personal takeaways
I’m generally not a shooter kind of guy, but Titanfall 2’s campaign looks insanely intriguing. The story that this game seems to want to tell about the partnership between a pilot and a titan that has it’s own AI looks really cool. The original game put me off thanks to it’s multiplayer only focus, but I was always interested in the way the movement looked - this time around it’s looks even better, thanks to the addition of a tool that every game gets now - the grappling hook.
Being a huge fan of the Mass Effect games it’s basically a given that I’m keen on Andromeda - though they still barely showed anything about the game during this conference that we didn’t already know. It’s a 2017 game, so we have a lot to get through before now and then, but I’m still tentatively excited.
Weirdly enough, FIFA 17 actually has me interested? This year the game introduces a true story mode in the same way that NBA 2K16 did last year, showing off a trailer that could be for a movie. The chances of me actually playing it are still pretty slim, but it’s the first time I’ve ever been interested in an actual sportsball game, so I count that as a win. Who knows, if it turns out well, I might just become a FIFA fan yet.
Bethesda
Games Shown
Quake Champions, Elder Scrolls Legends, Fallout 4 DLC, Fallout Shelter update, Skyrim Remastered, Prey, Doom DLC, Elder Scrolls Online, BethesdaVR, Dishonored 2
Breakdown
Bethesda had a strong showing once again this year, even if all of their games are pretty one dimensional in that are first person and mostly shooters. Hey, stick to what you know right? For real though, pretty much everything that was shown was a win for the audience each game serves - Fallout 4 is getting 3 new DLC packs over the next 3 months (including updates to the workshop, the ability to build your own vaults similar to Shelter and story DLC set in a new Nuka Cola theme park), Skyrim is coming to current gen with mods, Prey is a new horror game set on a space station and Dishonored 2 looks to continue on from the strength of the original. Quake Champions looks like it’s going to be a hybrid of old school Quake mayhem and modern hero shooter systems - given how well the team at id have pulled together the Doom reboot, I have faith that they will do a good job here. BethesdaVR is simply an initiative to bring it’s games to virtual reality - starting in 2017 with the ability for you to walk around in hell with Doom and being able to actually play the entirety of Fallout 4 in VR.
Personal takeaways
Given the 100s of hours I’ve spent in Skyrim I don’t know if I’ll want to play it again, but this remaster does look absolutely gorgeous in comparison - plus, the mod support looks to be incredible. Once it comes down in price, I don’t doubt that I’ll be happy to jump in once more.
The VR stuff sounds cool, particularly with Fallout 4. If there are any worlds that are the best to immerse completely in it’s the big Bethesda games, and if Fallout 4 is getting the VR treatment I have no doubt Skyrim will be as well.
On that, Fallout 4 is going to be bloody fantastic when I get around to playing it in 2018.