10th June 2019, 8:56 PM
So it's E3 time again, and the game industry is excited!
... Well, they're excited to tell you to come back in a year and a half, because with the press conferences over, Nintendo excepted, that is the main takeaway: come back in late 2020, when the next generation Sony and Microsoft consoles release. Before then? Well, there are a few games here and there, but it's clear that a lot of developers have moved on to next-generation development.
Almost as bad, at the Microsoft and Bethesda conferences particularly, finding actual footage of actual gameplay seemed to be in short supply. I mean, pre-rendered CGI trailers look nice, but they aren't gameplay! Why are they spending so much time on CG, and so little on gameplay? Even games that are supposed to release this year, like MS's big holiday title Gears of War 5, showed very little gameplay. I'd much rather see gameplay than CGI, sorry...
I do like that MS showed some actual PC games at their show though, for PC gaming it was Microsoft's best show in years. Flight Simulator, the Age of Empires II Remake, all the Halo games coming to PC, an announcement beforehand that FINALLY Win32 executables will be allowed on the Windows Store... it was a pretty good show for the PC from Microsoft. That was the main positive, though, otherwise it was lots of CGI, and short trailers for indie games and such.
Bethesda... well, they tried to apologize for Fallout 76. It's good they mentioned it I guess. As usual they didn't show much I care much about; I'm sure Doom Eternal will be great, but the last one didn't keep me interested for all that long, so I'm not planning on getting it anytime soon. And then... ughhh, well, and then... they announced... a Commander Keen cellphone game. I am, of course, a big fan of the Keen series; they're fantastic platformers which I loved in the early '90s and still think are great, great games. And it's been frustrating to see id and then Bethesda do nothing with it for so long. The trailer for the game's amusing, with some dumb and some amusing comedy. They've added a twin sister character in addition to the original Keen, which is a nice addition. It's sad that this is coming back as a mobile game, though. Too bad. So yeah, it was nice ot see but also awful to see, because seriously, Commander Keen returns... as a cellphone game?? Argh!
As for today, Ubisoft and Square-Enix had stuff to show, but ... eh. Ubi has some great and interesting games, but for me at least they didn't show them this year. The new Gods & Heroes game looks potentially cool, though it was just a prerendered trailer (of course...) and not gameplay, and it's amusing that the Wii lives another year thanks to Just Dance 2020, but otherwise it was a pretty forgettable show for them, I think. Oh well. Hopefully we see games I am more interested in like Beyond Good & Evil 2, Skull & Bones, TrackMania, Rayman, Rabbids, and such in the future. Square's show was maybe a little more interesting, but most of their games are remakes and remasters, with only a few really new games. And their two big games aren't ones that interest me all that much, Marvel's Avengers and the FFVII remake.
So uh, yeah, I hope Nintendo's show is good, since unlike the rest of the industry they probably aren't prepping for an all-new console next year...
... Well, they're excited to tell you to come back in a year and a half, because with the press conferences over, Nintendo excepted, that is the main takeaway: come back in late 2020, when the next generation Sony and Microsoft consoles release. Before then? Well, there are a few games here and there, but it's clear that a lot of developers have moved on to next-generation development.
Almost as bad, at the Microsoft and Bethesda conferences particularly, finding actual footage of actual gameplay seemed to be in short supply. I mean, pre-rendered CGI trailers look nice, but they aren't gameplay! Why are they spending so much time on CG, and so little on gameplay? Even games that are supposed to release this year, like MS's big holiday title Gears of War 5, showed very little gameplay. I'd much rather see gameplay than CGI, sorry...
I do like that MS showed some actual PC games at their show though, for PC gaming it was Microsoft's best show in years. Flight Simulator, the Age of Empires II Remake, all the Halo games coming to PC, an announcement beforehand that FINALLY Win32 executables will be allowed on the Windows Store... it was a pretty good show for the PC from Microsoft. That was the main positive, though, otherwise it was lots of CGI, and short trailers for indie games and such.
Bethesda... well, they tried to apologize for Fallout 76. It's good they mentioned it I guess. As usual they didn't show much I care much about; I'm sure Doom Eternal will be great, but the last one didn't keep me interested for all that long, so I'm not planning on getting it anytime soon. And then... ughhh, well, and then... they announced... a Commander Keen cellphone game. I am, of course, a big fan of the Keen series; they're fantastic platformers which I loved in the early '90s and still think are great, great games. And it's been frustrating to see id and then Bethesda do nothing with it for so long. The trailer for the game's amusing, with some dumb and some amusing comedy. They've added a twin sister character in addition to the original Keen, which is a nice addition. It's sad that this is coming back as a mobile game, though. Too bad. So yeah, it was nice ot see but also awful to see, because seriously, Commander Keen returns... as a cellphone game?? Argh!
As for today, Ubisoft and Square-Enix had stuff to show, but ... eh. Ubi has some great and interesting games, but for me at least they didn't show them this year. The new Gods & Heroes game looks potentially cool, though it was just a prerendered trailer (of course...) and not gameplay, and it's amusing that the Wii lives another year thanks to Just Dance 2020, but otherwise it was a pretty forgettable show for them, I think. Oh well. Hopefully we see games I am more interested in like Beyond Good & Evil 2, Skull & Bones, TrackMania, Rayman, Rabbids, and such in the future. Square's show was maybe a little more interesting, but most of their games are remakes and remasters, with only a few really new games. And their two big games aren't ones that interest me all that much, Marvel's Avengers and the FFVII remake.
So uh, yeah, I hope Nintendo's show is good, since unlike the rest of the industry they probably aren't prepping for an all-new console next year...
![[Image: logo_bos_79x76.jpg]](https://www.tendocity.net/logo_bos_79x76.jpg){kind=logo}