We’re back with yet another instalment of Respawning’s Let’s Talk series, where every Friday we get every one of our charismatic writers together to discuss a new topic! Unless you’ve been living under a rock then you’ll know that E3 has been stealing all the video game headlines over the past week and not always in a positive way. But what do we all think? Let’s Talk: What did we all think of E3 2019…
Chris
The two typical show stealers did it again for me this year: Devolver Digital, and Nintendo. Devolver’s nutty presentations are quickly becoming a staple must-watch in a season of buzzworlds and pre-rendered nonsense, and out-of-the-box steps like Devolver Bootleg and Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead prove there’s much more to the company than unexpected gore and hot takes on the industry.
Nintendo’s offerings were decent overall, topped with some Animal Crossing: New Horizons news (finally!), and especially that Banjo-Kazooie will be in Smash later this year! I may have bounced up and down like some over-excited jiggy.
And there is, of course, Ubisoft’s WatchDogs: Grandma’s Revenge to look forward to as well.
But that doesn’t mean everything was amazing, this year. Anthem was suspiciously absent, fuelling my speculation that the game’s days may be numbered. Cyberpunk 2077’s trailer was a bit underwhelming for me, too, Keanu reveal aside. And, as usual, there was little actual gameplay shown for a great many titles – cutscenes do not a video game make, and whenever I see this sort of thing, it’s hard not to be weary. Show us what you’re selling, guys!
Mikey
Going into this years E3 I have never been less excited, mostly due to the fact that my beloved Sony would not be attending this year but was it all as bad as I was expecting? No. Did that mean it was a great E3? Also no.
For somebody who doesn’t care about XBox I have to applaud Microsoft for stepping up and giving us some cool reveals, they had an opportunity here to really take advantage of the absence of PlayStation and to a point they did. The only problem I had with the press conference was the same problem I had with most the conferences and that’s the lack of actual gameplay. Now I know E3 is always full of cinematic trailers but it felt like a hell of a lot more this time round with only EA really giving us some decent gameplay footage for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order which was AMAZING by the way! I won’t go into Star Wars too much though as I know Will is still to follow..
I was however super hyped for the Square Enix Avengers game but the lacklustre cinematic trailer killed most of that buzz as it just looked trashy. The annoying thing is that people who have managed to see some actual gameplay have reported that the game actually looks a lot of fun so why not show us some of that?! Ah well at least I had FIFA 20 footage… oh wait.
William
E3 happened, it did what I does most years for me and drifted by with a couple of interesting moments but nothing to get my pants tightened. Then 2019 happened, and along came Jedi: Fallen Order. Not since I saw the trailer for Force Unleashed back in 2008 have I been this excited for a Star Wars game. I can’t wait to see the story of Cal Kestis unfold and you can bet your last credits that this Star Wars nerd has pre ordered. Of course you should never pre order… But screw it I did already and no one was around to stop me!
Clarissa
I was mostly interested in what Nintendo had to offer this year. Unfortunately I came away feeling a bit… Eh… Yes we did FINALLY get some confirmation and a look at the new Animal Crossing, but it’s releasing next year after promises of it coming this year.
…Something which reportedly knocked 1 billion dollars off Nintendos stock market value. That and no mention of Bayonetta 3, a Switch exclusive also previously stated to be coming this year… C’mon Nintendo what are you doing? Now I understand that snags and stuff can come up along the way don’t get me wrong. But Nintendo’s offering this year kind of just seemed like old news, or ‘yes, look we are porting this old game to your Switch to distract you from our deeply disappointing lack of new things’.
Then the news that the Galar region won’t support all the Pokemon and fans worry their faves won’t make the cut… And also the absolutely glaring lack of any mention of the reported new Switches in development I was left feeling a little uninspired and flat after this year’s Nintendo offering.
Alexx
E3 this year sucked. It sucked in 2017. It sucked in 2018. And shocking no-one, it sucked this year! Who the fuck signed off on the games shown? Pre-rendered trailers don’t count for shit and the absolute lack of gameplay was astonishing. Even the hotly anticipated Avengers game (I forget the name as it was so underwhelming) went off more like a beer fart than a firework, though I’ll give it a little credit for its cast.
Microsoft had nothing new to say about Project Scarlett other that it launches in Holiday 2020. I hope you’ll forgive me for not quivering myself into an early grave as a lack of information does nothing to get me interested!
I hate the idea of Forza Lego, but at time of writing I am yet to play it so will withhold judgement until then. I’ll keep you posted.
Next E3 could be promising as both next generation consoles should have been announced by then, but I swear by the void it’ll take a lot to get me invested in this shitshow again.
Dea
Hype train? Or scepticism?
So E3 is gone for another year, and there were plenty of juicy things shown off from all the major names. I remain sceptical about various titles shown off; very little in the way of actual gameplay was shown. Mostly more pre-rendered cinematic or scripted ‘trailers’. A lot of final fantasy related content was dropped by Square Enix, much to the approval of fans in the audience. EA released a roadmap for fixing the steaming pile of crap that is Fallout 76.
Obsidian’s Outer worlds, Gearbox’s Borderlands 3 and Sqaure Enix’s Dying Light 2 were all shown off to greater extent. New run and gun titles like Outriders and Doom Eternal were also shown off. And of course the big juicy showcases, Cyberpunk 2077 and Marvels Avengers the game, Oh ho, so juicy indeed! However I still remain sceptical about a majority of stuff shown off. Time will tell though, with most titles slated for a 2020 release, we won’t be seeing them for a while.
…But man I’m counting down the weeks till some of the content releases.
Joe
I’ll keep this breif.
Quite honestly, I’m still in shock from the god-tier presentation Nintendo offered up – Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Fire Emblem – Three Houses, Witcher fucking 3?! BREATH OF THE WILD 2?!
Baby. Just put me into cryostasis whilst I wait for all these games to come out. I’d better go deliver some pizza’s to I.C Weiner…