E3 is a giant nerd festival where all the big name game companies like Sony, Ubisoft and Microsoft come together to hang out and try to be all serious and have a competition to see whose press conference will be the best (which doesn’t really even matter because Nintendo always wins). Most of the time the press conferences are full of trailers and gameplay footage, but they also get middle aged white dudes to come on stage and say tiny speeches with inspiring quotes like “we make games for the gamers,” or “the future of gaming is here,” or “Xbox One X S xBone X”. E3 makes me feel like how I used to feel as a kid on Christmas morning; the hype, the enthusiasm and the plethora of “top ten games of E3” articles rekindle my love for games every year. One News did a terrible segment on E3 and only talked about the xxXboxOneXxx and how it’s kind of better than the other consoles. I mean they’re not wrong, but they miss what E3 is actually about, and that’s the actual games that were showcased! I’m going to talk about the ones I’m looking forward to playing, but you can also view each individual press conference on YouTube for free to see what might tickle your personal fancy! Yay, Internet!
Ashen
This game made its first debut at E3 2014 and guess what! It’s being developed by a company right here in New Zealand. Aurora44 are an independent developer based in Wellington (they’re also hiring, check out their website) and showed off an extended trailer during the Microsoft press conference showing gameplay that boasts the huge progress they have made over the past three years. Its eerie atmosphere and Dark Souls style of combat is going to make a rad Xbox exclusive. Support kiwi games and buy this when it comes out.
Beyond Good and Evil 2
Finally! A! Game! With! Interesting! Nuanced! Complex! Characters! It gets SO exhausting seeing game trailer after game trailer with the same rugged, troubled, brown-haired-white-dude protagonist. I’ve not played the first Beyond Good and Evil, which was released in 2003, but I cannot wait to go on a sci-fi adventure with Jade and company. This is the Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Fifth Element amalgamation I’ve been waiting to see in games! Although the release date is to be confirmed, and the trailer only showed one scene, I’m going to buy the shit out of this game when it comes out.
Moss
I’m still on the fence about Playstation VR, mainly because of the high cost and because I need to buy a Nintendo Switch first, but this game looks adorable. You go on an adventure with a tiny little mouse friend, a nice change from the oversaturation of horror games and simulators that VR seems incessant on pushing to the mainstream market. I’m going to sum up Moss with the Twitter thread I made while watching the live press conference.
1:36pm
TINY MOUSE FRIEND
1:37pm
Mouse friend vr
1:37pm
I’m watching this in the office n wanna scream but everyone is 2 quiet
2:03pm
Tiny mouse highlight of Sony e3 10/10 mouse
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Galaxy One and Two are my favourite games for Nintendo Wii and seeing extended footage of Super Mario Odyssey on the E3 livestream made me immediately preorder this game. Rather than power ups, Mario’s hat can take control of objects in this game, and the different worlds look rich with detail and character. Also, I can’t wait to see Mario hanging out with humans who are way bigger than him, what’s that about? Is Mario not a human? Is he hanging out with lizard people? This is probably the narrative they will be driving and I can’t wait to see the story unfold.
The Last of Us 2
This was the final game showcased in Sony’s press conference. I’m not really sure why Spiderman is the main protagonist of this one, but I’m interested to see where Naughty Dog is taking the franchise.