Not only can I believe we’re less than 2 weeks away from July, but I honestly cannot believe that E3 2018 has come and gone in the blink of an eye!
As we have done for the past couple of years me and Dane both watched and kept up with E3 2018 as much as we could. In all honestly I was quite disappointed with E3 this year. The majority of presentations were poor, some lacked any information on games or didn’t even show anything new, whilst others didn’t seem professional at all. We’ll talk more about this later.
Not only did we keep up with the couple of days that E3 had their conferences on, but we also kept up to date with YouTube channels such as IGN to keep up with any games that were announced outside of those conferences.
Like we did last year, we’ll take it in turns to talk about certain conferences, as well as favourite announcements this year. I don’t want to do it like we did last year and have me talk for ages and then Dane, I want it to be a mixture of us both!
As I would have said on last years post, I really hope you enjoy reading this post as much as we both enjoyed working on it together. Let’s throw ourselves into it! I’ll be the one talking majority of the time, I’ll state if Dane is chatting about anything. 😛
So EA were the ones who kick started us off for E3 2018 and whilst they did a good job, I do feel like it could have been better. I personally loved EA last year because of how much they spoke about Battlefront II, which at the time I was SO excited about! I was also pretty excited for the announcement of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, which sounds incredibly cool and exciting! Also Unravel 2 being announced was pretty awesome and it’s a game I can see me and Dane playing in the future.
Dane – EA, what happened to you? I think the only good thing that came out of it was Unravel 2. Battlefield:V has a battle-royale mode now. It looks like a typically good Dice game, but don’t try and force shit that didn’t happen in a historical setting and act like it could’ve happened. Also fuck them for ruining Command and Conquer. I fucking hate what they did to a beloved franchise.
To me alongside Bethesda, Microsoft brought it to E3 2018 and they were both the best this year by far! There was loads of announcements during Microsoft that I got so damn excited for. The first one that comes to mind is Battletoads. I used to play this on my Nintendo SNES growing up and I have so many fond memories of playing it, so now I can’t wait for it to be out on the Xbox to play with Dane. Another game that I cannot wait to download next week when it comes out is The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. It’s by the same guys behind Life Is Strange AND is also in the same universe as that game. I am incredibly excited for it already! Forza Horizons 4 is set in the UK and although I’m not a massive player of the Forza Horizon 3, I want to play this game now so I can play in the UK in autumn. 😛 We Happy Few is a game I’d like to give a go as it really reminds me of Bioshock and I LOVE that story so damn much… Whether I do or not is another story. I think overall though my favourite game that was announced at Microsoft is definitely Tunic, who is a cute little fox with a sword… Think Zelda but in fox form. 😛 I cannot wait for it to come out to play, I just wish it was on my PlayStation 4 but meh, whatever. 😛
Dane – Microsoft killed it this year, largely due to the fact that there was a lot of shit this year (looking at you PlayStation and EA!). I think Microsoft always have a good show and always present it well, they do just struggle with exclusives and giving gamers something to really talk about. This year though, they teamed up with a lot of individual studios to showcase their games, even going as far as buying them up and incorporating them within Microsoft Studios. Definitely excited about Fallout 76 though, I like the move towards multiplayer but the no NPCs is a interesting format which we will have to wait and see. Halo: Infinite didn’t really get me excited as Halo: 5 was mediocre, just hope 343 industries can do something good after their separation from Bungie. Session was an interesting announcement, lets hope it fills the void Skate left after EA did its thing to Black Box Studios. The biggest and best hype for me though was the trailer for Cyberpunk 2077. It was actually announced several years ago and with them showing codes for Witcher 3 (with DLC) hidden in the trailer was a smart move.
Now onto my favourite conference of E3 2018, Bethesda. Oh man they just brought so much to the table this year, especially in comparrison to last year. Their conference last year bored me and was just bland. This year not only did they shock us all with Fallout 76 and what they have planned for it, but they also revealed that Elder Scrolls 6 is in the works! I remember back when Morrowind was out how me and my cousins would play it all together. Then when Oblivion came out I played it so much, on both my laptop and my PS3! Then Skyrim came out and I was so disappointed by it. My dad had bought it me for Christmas the year it came out and I was gutted. It just didn’t play like the previous two had and recently I parted ways with it and took it to GAME. Now that we have something new and fresh on the way, I’m so fucking excited! As for Fallout 76, oh man it’s hella exciting for gamers alike who have loved the Fallout games for many years. They’re bringing so many exciting things for us to do on the game, but at the same time I worry about what it could cause. Are you going to build up your game play only to have it blown up by some dickhead who got the nuclear codes? Maybe, maybe not. We shall soon find out as this game will be out before we know it! Speaking of, how fucking cool is the power armour helmet that comes out with the limited edition game?? OH and one more game I’m excited for? Doom Eternal, but only for the music. HELL NO would I play that game! xD
Dane – My God. All good things and it was well presented, Todd Howard knows how to please. Fallout 76, Elder Scrolls: Blades, some new faraway game called Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6! What I really care about is a sequel to motherfucking Doom. Doom: Eternal ’nuff said. Motherfuckers.
Now we’d talk about Square Enix but we didn’t watch it… We know they would have shown Kingdom Hearts 3, but who the hell didn’t?! I’m not arsed about the Kingdom Hearts games and have played Kingdom Hears 1.5 on my PS3 in the past. It was fun to play but I don’t know if it was for me. I’m not a huge fan of the Final Fantasy games, which are practically the same but with Disney. When it’s cheap enough in the future I’ll probably pick it up.
So onto Ubisoft! The start of their conference to me really worked and it got me excited for what was to be announced throughout. I’ve never played a Just Dance game and I didn’t really know what they were advertising with all the dancing. When Dane suggested it, I wondered how I hadn’t thought of that myself. Either way, it was really cool and I love when people do things like this! To be honest apart from this the only game I was at all interested in was Skull and Bones, which looks like so much fun! Other than that, meh I’m not arsed. Let’s put it this was, near the end of the Skull and Bones talks, I fell to sleep. 😛
Dane – Zzzzz… Oh Ubisoft are on. They’ve announced a game set in Ancient Greece, that’s surpri… wait those animations look like Assassins Creed… Wait! It is Assassins Creed! *Sigh* I know they need to do something to differentiate the games as their formula started to suck but it no longer feels like you’re an assassin. It just looks like a standard adventure game set in Greece. Division 2 was also unsurprisingly announced with a very boring fake game play showcase. I wish the Tom Clancy games would go back to realism and make a single bullet count. Why can’t they make it play like Wildlands?
I didn’t watch the PC Gaming Show, but Dane did…
Dane – A few things… I am now once again a PC gamer. I should probably do another post on that because a lot has changed. I also have VR… so yeah. Segue! Stormlands is the new full VR experience from Insomniac Games. It looks pretty sweet, like Lone Echo but open world. Cyanide and Happiness have an isometric battle royale game, that should be fun. There is a Shark game, where you’re a shark. Odd. Satisfactory a first person Factorio clone looks interesting. Something about Sega releasing some recent-ish games on PC. Star Citizen released a trailer to a game that will be too big to ever be completed. Erm. Can’t really remember much else.
Finally we are coming down to the last 2 and what were the conferences I was the most excited for, as I am every year. Sony is the first one we will be talking about. I wasn’t disappointed by what Sony showed, but by the way they showed it. Every conference before it had spoken about most of the games it showed, or at least announced release dates. Did Sony did that? Nope. I was sad that they didn’t at least talk about new games they revealed. I was excited for a couple of games that they revealed, which include The Last Of Us II, which I have been so excited for since they announced it about 2 years ago. Spider-Man is also another game I was excited for but I have mixed feelings about it at the moment… It reminds me of the first Spider-Man game that came out on PlayStation many years ago now. I played it religiously and I loved it so much! I like the look of the one and especially of the nostalgia is gives me, but meh… I need to see more. Finally we have Death Stranding, a game I’m interested in because I want to know what the hell happens! I was disappointed that we didn’t get to hear about this game. Looking at it and seeing lots more footage for it is amazing, yes. But come on guys! We want to HEAR ABOUT IT TOO!
Dane – Sony, Sony, Sony. I have never liked you. This year though only reinforces that feeling. You were so boring and didn’t show us anything of value, you have your exclusives and decent IPs but what good is that if you have a conference like that. TLOU 2 looks pretty good, too good in fact. The animation in the fight scene from the game play section was something I have never witnessed before and thinking back on it, it has to be a planned animation. It just looked too perfect. Death Stranding was the only highlight for me really, it teased so much but still leaves you with more questions. Hideo Kojima is a batshit genius and I am excited for it. Microsoft are nipping at Sony’s heels though and as much as I am glad that Sony fucked up this year I expected more from them.
Finally we are onto the last conference of E3 2018, which was BY FAR the worst out of all of them for me… Nintendo. I’m a massive Nintendo gamer, they introduced me to gaming with Tetris and Pokemon on the Game Boy, as well as Donkey Kong, Starfox and Bomberman on the SNES. Their conference was starting at 5pm on the Tuesday, which is the same time I finish work. It takes me a max of 20 minutes due to traffic to get home from work. I managed to get out on time and even got petrol on my way home. I worried I may have missed loads and regretted getting petrol, but what did I miss? SWEET FUCK ALL. All I was watching when I got in from work was Super Smash Bros. They must have spoken about this game for at least an hour and it wasn’t even stuff that was THAT INTERESTING, most of it was just extras in the game. I know I’m not a fan of this game series, but who cares?! Let people play the game and discover the extras for themselves! It was obvious that Nintendo didn’t have much new to share, so instead soaked up an hour of their 2 hour conference with bloody Smash Bros. NOW I know all of us Nintendo boys and gals are disappointed that we didn’t get an Animal Crossing game announced for the Switch, but come on… Are you really surprised?! I knew we wouldn’t get an Animal Crossing game announcement. How? Well look at the phone game. If you ask me, Nintendo have run out of ideas for the game series, which is sad to admit but it’s true. I have the camper game but it bores the crap out of me and I only really play it when I’m incredibly bored. Of course I want a Switch game, but I’m not betting on it anytime soon. Whilst I was annoyed and disappointed by Nintendo, I was also happy to see some talk about Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee, which I am SO EXCITED FOR! I’ll definitely be getting the latter, as well as the special Poke Ball controller for the Switch. It’s not the RPG that Game Freak has been telling us about, but this will sure as hell tide me over until that game comes out. I’m just so excited for this and to hear more about that made up for the bullshit of Super Smash Bros that we had to endure beforehand. The game will work alongside Pokemon Go, which I have recently started playing again. I like the thought of being able to use your phone to play the game on the go and then continue when you get home by connecting it all up with the Switch. I also love the idea of playing this game with a friend, AKA Dane. I am a huge Pokemon fan and have been for as long as I can remember. I own and buy most Pokemon related games that come out and this one won’t be an exception, which I’ll also be pre ordering as soon as I can.
Dane – Nintendo this year was basically Super Smash Bros changelog V1.02. It was incredibly boring listening to the most minute detail they were adding to the next game. I don’t give a shit about that, just say we have added these characters and read this to find out more then move onto the next thing. The mini Pokemon games were the only thing of interest which had a small trailer and that was it, Nintendo were always the ones thinking out of the box and doing things for fun. This time it was just a waste of time.
So now we’ve spoken (and probably bored you all!) about the conferences, it’s time for me to briefly talk about some of my favourites that were announced outside of the conferences!
Spyro Reignited Trilogy – Out on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 21st September 2018.
One of my fondest memories of the six weeks holidays one year was playing this game day after day with my cousins and taking it in turns to beat the levels and bosses of Spyro 2! I then went on to play Spyro 3 on my own and nearly completing it 100% before my game file got corrupted and broke! I’ve since then played it fully again and completed it fully twice, once on my PS3 and once on my PS4! You get that I love Spyro, right?! 😛 I just cannot wait for this to come out in September to be perfectly honest with you and I was so excited when I discovered game play of the game. It’s lovely to see a refreshing look at Spyro, as well as hearing Tom Kenny voicing Spyro. He voiced him in both Spyro 2 and 3 and you’ll know him as being the voice behind Spongebob and Ice King.
Tunic – Out on Xbox One and Windows release Date TBC.
I know I mentioned this game when talking about Microsoft but I just had to show it here! I remember them talking about it last year at E3 and I fell in love, so I’m so happy they showed him again! It shows they haven’t forgotten about this little cutie and I don’t think many of us gamers have either. I cannot wait to hear more about this game and I’m keeping fingers crossed it’ll be out before the end of 2018.
Dead or Alive 6 – Out on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 early 2019.
Now if there is a game series like Pokemon that I have been behind and loved since day one, it’s the Dead or Alive games! I love them so much and I laugh so much at the bouncing boobies, like we all do! I just enjoy them and they’re some of the first fighting games I really could get into and play. I also love the stories of some of the characters, especially Ayana, Tina Armstrong, Helena Douglas and definitely Kasumi. The game play itself is the best to date and we are definitely in much need of a new DoA game after 7 years! I cannot wait for it.
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight – Out on PlayStation 4 and PS Vita early 2019.
If there was one game I was hoping to see at E3 2018 it was this one! As regular readers of my blog will know, I love Persona 5 so much, so when I heard they were bringing this out I was super excited! I already have the dance game for Persona 4 and I really enjoy playing it, so God help me when this comes out! I am tied between getting it for my PS4 and my PS Vita but I think it’ll have to be my console to be honest with you, just so I can get it to go with the main game. This is a game I will be pre ordering closer to the time!
Pokeball Plus – Out for Nintendo Switch on 16th November 2018.
I didn’t really touch upon this above but I will briefly here. The Pokeball Plus wasn’t really something I was sure if I wanted, until E3! Not only will this Pokeball be limited edition (according to workers in GAME anyway…) but it will also contain Mew, the hardest Pokemon to gain in the original Pokemon series! A lot of people have stated online how their favourite part of E3 2018 was how Mew talks to Reggie during this talk. 😛
Pokemon: Let’s Go Pikachu and Pokemon: Let’s Go Eevee – Out on Nintendo Switch 16th November 2018.
Last but certainly not least we have what is probably one of my favourites from E3 2018 and I’m not going to talk much about it because I’ve pretty much done all of that earlier when talking about Nintendo. I just thought it would be rude not to share the YouTube video on here. 😛
So that is our his and hers post about E3 2018 and our highlights, as well as us bitching and moaning. 😛
In all honesty I don’t know if I speak for both me and Dane when I say this but this is by far the worst E3 I have watched to date and I don’t know why. It just lacked so much overall and it was disappointing because of it. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way too and it is such a shame. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED watching E3 2018 but at the same time I felt like I wasted my time at points whilst watching it. E3 2017 just had so much more going for it. There was also some technical fuck ups that me and Dane noticed at times too during conferences, which isn’t the end of the world but it’s not exactly great, is it?!
Overall though I am so happy to see some games I’ve been hyped about the past year or two and especially happy to see them all get release dates and times!
What games did you love seeing at E3 this year? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below.
I hope you’re all well and had an amazing weekend, but until next time take care!
There Might Be Coffee 