As with every E3, this year’s expo, there was a boatload of announcements and as ever, not all of them were good- so here’s a look at the very best (and worst) of this year’s news!
Out of the gate, Electronic Arts’ ‘Play’ event was rather boring, in hindsight. I saw everything I expected, with a nice new trailer of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which looks as good as ever. In addition we got some Apex Legends and Battlefield news, with a new season of the former and the latter getting a big chapter of content.
...and that’s where the positives end, really. The rest of their event was filled with mundane news like FIFA 20’s ‘VOLTA’ mode getting a story. The four people who play Madden 20 in the UK will be thrilled to hear that it is also getting a story mode as well. Maybe next time, EA.
I really could write a full article on Microsoft’s conference alone, but for the sake of brevity let’s take a look at what they did right. There were new trailers aplenty this year, with Fromsoftware showing off Elden Ring, a new project with George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame helping out, while Keanu Reeves wowed the audience with his surprise inclusion in Cyberpunk 2077, announcing it will be coming 16 May 2020. Another star announcement was Minecraft Dungeons, an action RPG in the Minecraft style, which looks like a genuinely fun addition to the franchise.
Other announcements included a tease of Microsoft’s next-gen Project Scarlett, a closer look at the Battletoads Reboot, Halo Infinite’s new trailer and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, a collection of all 9 films’ Lego tie-in games. In short, many classic favourites.
On the downside, Bethesda, Ubisoft and Square Enix all had a few pearls each, but with uninteresting remakes or mobile games filling in some rather large gaps of quality. Respectively, the best of this mixed bag were Doom Eternal’s new trailer, Ubisoft’s reveal of Roller Champions (a vibrant, fast-paced sports game), and the stunning remake of Final Fantasy VII stole the show at Square Enix’s conference. As an added bonus, all Final Fantasy music is now available on streaming services, so I can now blast ‘One Winged Angel’ in the shower and cry even easier now. Thanks Squenix.
Finally, Nintendo managed to save the week with a final bunch of new announcements. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is delayed until spring 2020. But worry not! It looks gorgeous, boasts plenty of new mechanics like crafting, and allows you to build your own town from scratch. There was a mixed bag of reactions what Nintendo showed next, with fans loving what we saw of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but weren’t as crazy about Pokemon Sword/ Shield, which won’t even feature all previous pokémon, the dubious honor of a series first.
In Smash Bros. Ultimate news, players will now be able to play as long-awaited addition Banjo-Kazooie, and the many different Heroes from the Dragon Quest series, leaving two more DLC fighters to be revealed before February 2020.