E3 is here again, and I'm ready for the surprises it will give. Quite a lot has leaked ahead of time this year, so whether there will be any left remains to be seen. However, I'm not talking about all of that here. As ever, this is what I want to be seeing throughout the event.
Nintendo, as ever, is where my focus lies. With Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo Switch being announced and mentioned as a focus, it’s possible this will be the last item of the presentation to segue into being the first item of the Treehouse streams. Day one of those streams is sure to focus on a lot of the big stuff announced in the presentation, with the end being the Splatoon 2 finals and the Smash Invitational. The Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion will probably get a focus in the Treehouse too.
0 Comments
E3 finishes for another year, and it has honestly been a bit... bland. EA really want to push Star Wars Battlefront 2, such is the fact nearly everything else felt rushed.
As you probably saw with my post of EA’s conference, that footage of Battlefront 2 in action really had me impressed. It feels massively improved, in gameplay and mechanics, and if everything else looks as great as that did then… Consider it a vital purchase and a possible chance of beating Pandemic’s effort back in 2005. I’ve said before, but Pandemic really set out to get the core mechanics down before expanding with new modes between their first and second games. EA threw a lot of things in, found what worked and improved on what didn’t, and are hopefully coming out with a better game. Time will tell. Nintendo's short and sweet Spotlight paid off in a way. It still had talk involved, but with three days of Treehouse, they can afford it. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was shown off first, with a slightly more anime look than previous games.
This one doesn't have a date, and neither does a new Kirby Switch game which is coming in 2018. A previous Direct showed off three Kirby games for 3DS, so it's good to know one is coming to Switch. Pokken Tournament was talked about a bit, but the bigger news is that Game Freak are working on a main-line Switch game. This wasn't revealed during the Pokémon Direct last week - which revealed Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon as well as Gold and Silver on the 3DS Virtual Console - which means they were saving it specifically for this point. Nothing can be shown, as it's probably only recently started development. Ubisoft jumped straight in with the game everyone knew was coming. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. And they got Miyamoto on stage to talk about it. Ubisoft were basically given the freedom to take Mario to a place he’s never been before.
Such is the result of this game. A strategic RPG that brings the rabbids into the Mushroom Kingdom, where some partner up with Mario and co. while others seek to wreak havoc. The game’s battles are about fighting these rabbids in turn-based combat that actually has some depth with positioning and such. New attacks and weapons can be unlocked through game progression, and this is Nintendo’s big August game, with it releasing 29/August. Microsoft put up an excellent fight and came away stronger than EA ever could hope this E3. Scorpio has a new name – the Xbox One X. A focus on power, to bring the best looking games possible, even on 1080p screens. Compatibility, to allow all games and accessories to cross over to the more powerful hardware.
Craftsmanship, allowing all that power to fit inside a shell smaller than the original One. A liquid-cooled vapour chamber allows server-scale cooling in the console. All this for $499. The Xbox Backward Compatibility program gets an upgrade in the form of original Xbox games being released soon. Crimson Skies will be one of the first on the service, and these games are being reworked to look their best on Xbox One. And as for the games… Well. Forty-two games, twenty-four of which are console exclusive. Ready to count them down? EA really hit it out with Star Wars this year. Everything else was within forty minutes at the start. So before we get into the main event of Star Wars Battlefront 2, let's run down everything else.
Battlefield 1 gets new content in the form of In the Name of Tsar. This expansion is adding six new maps, focusing on the eastern battles of Russia. FIFA and Madden get shown with a focus on eSports after. Need For Speed Payback gets gameplay, and it honestly looks like an upgraded Hot Pursuit. Driving and taking others out to reach the mission objective, and swapping to another car due to story points. It looks great, though feels as though it lingers a bit too long on vehicles during a takeout at the minute. It certainly looks good. June will always be the biggest month in gaming, simply due to E3. This time we have Nintendo hoping to have success again the same as last year, Microsoft revealing the Scorpio in full, a huge multiplayer event for EA, and a few interesting things from the others.
So let's jump into this in the order I'm most excited for things, which of course is going to be Nintendo first. Nintendo are striking hard and fast this year after their success last year. And they have even more big games to show. With the Switch released and already being a big hit, it’s time to take that into overdrive. Having said last post that there would be a Nintendo related one, that isn't happening owing to only keeping the focus of individual articles to just conferences. In past years I've always only covered Treehouse streams in this final word, the same will happen this year. And it is with Nintendo we will start.
The first day focused almost exclusively on The Legend of Zelda - now with its new subtitle of Breath of the Wild - though Pokémon Sun and Moon did feature at the beginning. It's looking interesting, despite still not knowing all that much. Ubisoft's conference was interesting enough. They had to have the usual dancers for Just Dance - which opened the event - doing a movement filled dance routine to Don't Stop Me Now. Not much was said on it, but the game will be coming to all current platforms, including PC and Nintendo's NX.
The first big game came in the form of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands. A trailer giving context to the story was shown off first. Then there was a talk on how this is the largest world Ubisoft have ever made, how it'll give you the freedom of choice to do things the way you want. Microsoft... You really took that to the next level. A large amount of games, and even two hardware revisions announced. Big scale reveals and smaller alike got the crowd excited.
Talking of console revisions, one of them is what they started with. The Xbox One S is forty percent smaller than the original, and has its power block inside the console. With the revision comes a revised controller, with a textured grip, extra range, and a bluetooth connectivity button. The Xbox One S sure looks better, though I'm hoping it will come in other colours than white. It launches for $299 in August. |