E3 2018

[Jordan]

I was watching ProJared earlier and he explained what happened during Sony's conference with that weird time wasting intermission sequence between The Last of Us 2 and Ghosts of Tsushima. What happened is that they had this weird tent set up for The Last of Us 2 which was separate from their main show floor. They had attendees file into this tent first because when the trailer for The Last of Us 2 began, it showed the characters in a structure similar to the one that they had attendees go to. This was some kind of gimmick that they designed explicitly for people who attended Sony's E3 directly. ProJared comments that people watching from home would not have understood this at all. It was some weird attempt at immersion.

When The Last of Us 2 trailer ended, they actually had attendees file out of the tent and into Sony's main show floor. In between they put on several musical performances, some of which they showed and some of which I don't think were streamed (instead they streamed the group of people talking). This was where they had some issues as it apparently took them longer than expected to shuffle attendees out of the Last of Us 2 tent and into the main building where they showed everything else. The lengthy intermission was designed to screen the boring and awkward process of moving all of the people from one building to another. Unfortunately, hearing a bunch of people talk about Sony was no more entertaining. Even more unfortunately, it took longer than they expected to move from their Last of Us 2 Presentation to their presentation of everything else. Sony clearly did not plan their set up very well. The intermission was probably expected to last for only a few minutes but instead it dragged on.

That aside, I thought everything else Sony showed was at least alright except for Death Stranding. They definitely had some weird presentation ideas and some flukes. They lacked the polish of Microsoft, but it was a decent show. I was pretty entertained by it. ProJared gave it a C+. I'd actually rate it higher personally, though I would have liked to have seen more of Ni Oh 2.

[SkyPikachu]

I was watching ProJared earlier and he explained what happened during Sony's conference with that weird time wasting intermission sequence between The Last of Us 2 and Ghosts of Tsushima. What happened is that they had this weird tent set up for The Last of Us 2 which was separate from their main show floor. They had attendees file into this tent first because when the trailer for The Last of Us 2 began, it showed the characters in a structure similar to the one that they had attendees go to. This was some kind of gimmick that they designed explicitly for people who attended Sony's E3 directly. ProJared comments that people watching from home would not have understood this at all. It was some weird attempt at immersion.

When The Last of Us 2 trailer ended, they actually had attendees file out of the tent and into Sony's main show floor. In between they put on several musical performances, some of which they showed and some of which I don't think were streamed (instead they streamed the group of people talking). This was where they had some issues as it apparently took them longer than expected to shuffle attendees out of the Last of Us 2 tent and into the main building where they showed everything else. The lengthy intermission was designed to screen the boring and awkward process of moving all of the people from one building to another. Unfortunately, hearing a bunch of people talk about Sony was no more entertaining. Even more unfortunately, it took longer than they expected to move from their Last of Us 2 Presentation to their presentation of everything else. Sony clearly did not plan their set up very well. The intermission was probably expected to last for only a few minutes but instead it dragged on.

That aside, I thought everything else Sony showed was at least alright except for Death Stranding. They definitely had some weird presentation ideas and some flukes. They lacked the polish of Microsoft, but it was a decent show. I was pretty entertained by it. ProJared gave it a C+. I'd actually rate it higher personally, though I would have liked to have seen more of Ni Oh 2.

How did they not see this being an issue. I'm gob smacked they thought this would work. Also what was the reasoning behind Dreams being post show. Also the stuff shown was also good but I have no idea when I'll be able to play it.

New announcements and release dates are really the things I strive for at E3. Gameplay I always know I'll see from IGN, Gamespot and other sources. So Sony spent too much time showing off game that wasn't live and didn't give out any release dates. Was a huge downer for me personally.

[Jordan]

Yeah, that's fair. I agree with you that the lack of release dates and pushed back release dates were disappointing. In fact, I actually hadn't even realized that Sony was vague with its release schedule until you posted. So your post was interesting to me and illuminated a problem that I didn't know existed!

I tend to take release dates with a grain of salt because things often get pushed back and delayed, especially when it comes to larger projects. I generally am more interested in gameplay footage because that tends to determine whether I'll be interested in a game or not. We probably have different expectations going into E3, but I completely understand your perspective. There's definitely other places than E3 to look for if you want gameplay. New announcements are always the most hype thing at E3, and this year was admittedly a bit light on those. There were a few new announcements here and there, but I've heard many people say that this E3 felt like a continuation of where the last E3 left off.

As for why Sony thought their strange presentation would work out well, I have no idea. The whole thing seems like a bit of a fluke. I don't know why they showed Dreams later either. They should have at least showed a few snippets of it at the main event even if they wanted to focus on mainly 4 games (The Last of Us 2, Death Stranding, Spider-Man, Ghosts of Tsushima). The demo they had for Control was pretty neat for instance, and a similar sized demo for Dreams could have been good before going into more detail during the post-show. You make a good point there.

[Kong Wen]

Daemon X Machina looks like it could be potentially interesting I guess, but the trailer was one of the worst trailers I've ever seen. No information, generic, context-free action sequences, and a repetitive loop of music that sounds like it was made in Microsoft Paint for sounds.

I was glad to see some good-looking Fire Emblem. I really hope they treat it right and make it the whole package instead of trying to bleed money out of two separate retail SKUs and a bunch of seasonal DLC.

I think a key difference in ranking different companies' performances is between ranking their conferences vs. ranking what they actually showed. Sony and Nintendo showed us some potentially interesting stuff, but their presentations themselves weren't great.

I love that Ubisoft devoted time in their presentation to a game they're releasing on the original Wii.

[Claytone]

Where to begin.

If Microsoft doesn't win E3 I'll be stoked and Playstation or Nintendo put on a ripper show.

Wow, I actually missed Microsoft's show. Only thing I heard of afterward was Battletoads (which I'm pumped for). The rest of the list you posted (which I've omitted for brevity) is really solid. I'll have to look more into this.

[Kong Wen]

TUNIC IS ADORABUBBLE OMG OMG I remember it at the PC Gaming Show last year.

Tunic is being made by someone in my town.

[SkyPikachu]

Where to begin.

If Microsoft doesn't win E3 I'll be stoked and Playstation or Nintendo put on a ripper show.

Wow, I actually missed Microsoft's show. Only thing I heard of afterward was Battletoads (which I'm pumped for). The rest of the list you posted (which I've omitted for brevity) is really solid. I'll have to look more into this.

It was like Sony from 2017. Game after game after game. They said it was 50 games.

[SkyPikachu]

Proper Recap

While there's enough games I'm interested in to make the below list the lack of stuff from Sony and Nintendo really hurt E3 this year and it really seems like it's a recovery year from 2017.

Best Game Announced @ E3 2018 - Dying Light 2 (Never played 1 but the whole concept is amazing)
Best New IP - Ghost of Tsushima (Damn does this game look amazing also I love the setting)
Best Indie - Tunic (This is exactly what I love in games just simple fun looking games)
Best Game Coming 2018 (Shown in a conference) - (Unravel 2, Forza Horizon 4, We Happy Few, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Just Cause 4)
Best Game feat. Gameplay - Ghost of Tsushima (It honestly really stole the show for me)
Best Conference - Microsoft (This was an easy pick they simply showed the most stuff and the most interesting stuff)
Worst Conference - EA (It was a toss up between EA and Nintendo, Nintendos was shorter and I do think Smash sounds amazing while it's not my thing)
Biggest Surprise - Ghost of Tsushima (I had heard of this game but knew nothing about it)
Biggest Let Down - Nintendo's Conference (2 new games both being fairly average, Yoshi and Fire Emblem delayed the rest was smash or PS4/XBone ports. No Nintendo Wii/Wii U ports either.)

Other Games I liked the look of - Unravel 2, Sea of Solitude, Halo Infinite, Ori Will of the Wisps, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, Crackdown 3, Kingdom Hearts III, Forza Horizon 4, We Happy Few, Tales of Vesperia, Sessions, Battletoad, Just Cause 4, The Quiet Man, Beyond Good and Evil 2, Control, Trover Saves the Universe, Daemon x Machina

Game of the Show - Ghost of Tsushima (Very easy pick it's the game that stands out above everything (other than Tunic but I can't really give Tunic Game of the Show )

[The Shoemaker]

Sony was the only show I missed as I was working, but I'm sure the main 4 games all look good.

I had low expectations for Nintendo and I think they showed even less than I was expecting. Losing Yoshi and fire emblem means 2018 goes back to being a pretty weak year overall, especially since Smash isn't until the very end of the year.

But Smash itself was an awesome showing. There's still a lot up in the air like a proper story mode, but for now I'm really happy with the changes and updates.

Overall, not a lot for me from this e3.

[Jordan]

They later showed some gameplay of the Daemon x Machina game. They probably should have had a little bit in the trailer at E3, but at least they managed to squeeze some in during Treehouse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJdWDuYRl50

I think they might have tampered with the settings to ensure that the player's HP did not dip below 60 or something. It seemed like they should have died many times over. Reminds me a lot of Armored Core.