E3 2018: Day 2 · 12:54pm Jun 11th, 2018
Well, it was Microsoft's and Bethesda's turns yesterday, and my reactions are:
To my surprise, Microsoft opened with Halo. No, sorry, let me rephrase that. They opened with a tech demo of a game engine with which the next Halo game will be built.
The engine looks great, and it seems 343 is ditching their art style (because Cortana rewriting the armor's firmware causing it to change appearance while in cryo stasis just makes so much fucking sense). But I wanted something with a little more substance, especially with last year's absence. I'd wager that Halo 5 and an eventually-fixed Master Chief Collection will have to tide us over for two more years, and Halo: Infinite will launch in 2020.
So Phil Spencer was basically talking out of his ass when he said he'd like to stop announcing games farther than six months out.
My biggest hope, MCC for the PC, was not announced. Bummer.
On my husband's side, The Division 2 trailer was decent, save for the absolute cringe-worthy dialogue that you first thought was in-game, then you realized that it's, laughably, voiceovers pretending to be the player squad.
While Forza Horizon 4 looked pretty, I wanted to bitchslap the presenter for going on about shared worlds and how it's better than playing solo. Piss off, you over-socialized douche. Single player will always be my preference.
We also got another trailer for the very impressive looking Cyberpunk 2077, complete with a hidden letter to the fans from CD Projekt Red denouncing loot boxes and DRM. Note to the rest of the fucking industry; be more like CDPR, you corporate shareholder-cocksucking cunts.
But for Microsoft's show, the best trailer for me personally, was Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The trailer whipped out the feels once again, and even showed a little of what Ori is going to be able to do without Sein. Release is 2019, but here's hoping it's early.
Yeah, that's another thing. Q1 2019 is looking to be quite crowded so far.
Then over to Bethesda.
Fallout 76, um, cool, except I think the always-multiplayer aspect is pissing off legions of Fallout faithful.
Doom Eternal was teased, but they were like "Yeah, we're going to come to the biggest stage in the industry, and tell you to come find out more at our convention two months later."
Whatever, give us a release date.
Then, Todd Howard came forward with this:
Gotta respect devs who are that self-aware and can make fun of themselves like that.
Then to end it all, to my complete shock, they confirmed Elder Scrolls VI is in development. With just 30 seconds of a scrolling landscape and the Elder Scrolls drums and fanfare, the trailer couldn't have taken too long to put together. I'd wager we're 3-4 years away from ES6, and they showed us this just to shut everyone up.
Still, Skyrim Very Special Edition has my vote for Best In Show.
Ubisoft and Sony are today.
All in all, this E3 is proving that I'm becoming more and more of a jaded gamer in his 30's.
Did... did you NOT watch Devolver Digital's E3?
It's already won E3 in my opinion.
Check a Look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku5DjH8vAtc
To be fair, Todd did offhandedly mention there will be a fully offline single player mode. So it's more like GTA Online than something like Destiny.
Personally, I was quite glad to see Prey get some love, even if it's a full year after release that we actually get new content. Then again, I'm one of about 12 people on the planet that prefers Arkane to Id and Bethesda Softworks.
Oh sure do not mention the amazingness that is Rage 2 and how that trailer opened with a kick ass song from Andrew WK.
I cried tears of joy when I saw Cyberpunk. Words cannot express how excited I am for thIs game.
So Skyrim Very Special Edition is actually real.