E3

June 20, 2018

E3 2018 Highlights

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I was away travelling during E3 week this year and thus was only able to follow it secondhand. I’m busy processing my trip (and frankly wishing I was still on it) and getting over yet another horrific summer cold, but here are a few thoughts on the stuff that jumped out at me from what I caught of this year’s expo. As usual, I’m focusing on Bethesda and Nintendo as I’m no longer passionate enough about the industry on the whole to expend the time, space and effort it would take to follow all the other companies.

It was a somewhat quiet year for Bethesda and Nintendo, with not a lot of new announcements and much spotlighting of games that had been announced prior to E3, *leaked* prior to E3 or that had been open secrets that were all but confirmed already. Which is fine by me frankly: After a massively successful launch and a year of doing nothing by skyrocketing in popularity, the Switch has made it a *very* expensive few months for me (at last count the system has *over 700 games* already! I don’t own all of them, but enough that I feel it) and I have other things I need to spend my time and money on other than video games. So, I actually really appreciate the breather. But even so, there was some exciting stuff.

I suppose I should lead with the big news right off the bat, even though none of this is really “news”. The talk of the show was *of course* Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Switch. Indeed, Nintendo were so confident in it being the showstopper they basically didn’t talk about anything else, and bloody Smash took up over a half an hour of Nintendo’s presentation. And, much to my chagrin, they were probably right. That the Switch is getting a Super Smash Bros. should be a surprise to absolutely no-one, especially as it was announced in a Direct back in April. Slightly more interestingly is the notion that Ultimate is going to live up to its name and include basically everyone and everything that has ever been in a Smash Bros. game before, and that this may well be the final game in the series. To this end, the developers have made a point to include fan “requested” (read “demanded”) characters like Daisy and Ridley. So, if you every wanted to play as a space dragon unimaginatively named after a film director who directed the film his series is openly ripping off and who is most famous for being a woman’s primary abuser in a story all about abusing her and triggering her post-traumatic stress disorder, now’s your chance!

If I sound cynical and negative about this game, well, it’s because I am. I’m sure Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be a great game and I do plan to get it at some point, but I am beyond sick of this series and its fandom. I have very fond and tender memories of the original Super Smash Bros.

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June 16, 2017

E3 2017: Nintendo

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1 Strengthen your body. Staying in good health is the basis of everything

My first thoughts upon watching the opening to Nintendo’s E3 2017 showcase were that their new demographic seems to be athletes. We opened on a montage of weightlifters, strength trainers, boxers and sportspeople all passionately getting ready for their next event. Much as, I would guess, Nintendo themselves do to prep for E3. But then there were those who seemed to not be training for anything in particular, just groups of friends hanging out at the beach or downtown. Maybe those athletes aren’t all career players then. Maybe some of them just do what they do for the love of it.

This is a message that speaks to me.

There are many schools of faith for which total body fitness is a matter of spirituality, especially in east Asia. You take care of your body, mind and soul because all are emanations of the same sacred whole: Health and wellness of the body is the same as health and wellness of the spirit. This is an ideal to which all of us can work towards, and when we train to improve out bodies it is very much like honing our awareness through meditation. Training is, in fact, a form of meditation and staying strong and in good health are blessings to be grateful for. Training your body is also a form of self-improvement. It is yet one more tool we can use in our quest to become better people every day.

After the opening sequence, Reggie Fils-Amie introduces the show by musing on the nature of competition in athletics, and in video games. For many gamers, he says “fun and battle are always locked together”. The game is a challenge to be overcome. But, he reminds us, games can be much more than that. Games can be “a journey to other worlds”. For Nintendo, and for Shigeru Miyamoto (and for me), this has always been true, because it speaks truth. Reggie says to “close your focus, and open your mind” and asks us to remember that it’s not “where you can take your game, but where your game can take you” that’s truly important. This is, and always has been, Nintendo’s philosophy, and mine as well.

2 Childhood’s End

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 got full reveal trailer. This is a sequel to the original Wii Xenoblade Chronicles (and its re-release on the New Nintendo 3DS), rather than the WiiU Xenoblade Chronicles X. Watching the trailer a few thoughts struck me. One, everyone has Northern English accents for some reason, continuing the series’ tradition of counterintuitive English dub choices that seem to evoke the famously barmy Sixth Generation era of JRPGs Xenoblade seems at once a loving tribute to and evolution from. But secondly, a story about a quest to return to a vanished utopia built upon a constructed World Tree strikes me as a poignantly apt note for a game born from, and supposedly made for, the Japanese anime fandom.

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June 14, 2017

E3 2017: Bethesda

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E3 this year has been weird for me. At first I wasn’t even going to watch it, resolving to put modern games behind me (except Samurai Warriors) for the foreseeable future, but then the Nintendo Switch started selling like Nintendo stuff does on eBay. So then I was just going to watch Bethesda and Nintendo, and wound up watching Ubisoft and Sony too, the former of which actually did some pretty cool stuff. And yet even so, as I write this, I’m not sure I could point to anything I’ve seen at this year’s E3 that makes me terribly enthusiastic about upcoming releases for the next 18 moths or so, or makes me want to shell out the 300 big ones to get a Nintendo Switch just yet (and “XBOX One X”? Ha. Haha. Hahahahahahahahaha). We’re not getting much in the way of reveals and announcements, more “here’s a thing we announced last year. We’re still making it. Here’s what it looks like now and when it’ll be out”.

But none of that, weirdly, actually matters, because, in giving us a more understated and intimate show, E3 this year shows the industry in a healthier place creatively then I’ve seen it in I think *decades*.

Even though I watched more then two conferences, I’m still only going to write up Bethesda and Nintendo’s showings, if for no other reason then I didn’t take notes for the others. I’ll mention Microsoft, Sony and Ubisoft at points because they’re relevant to the story of these two houses, which brings me to my first point…

I’m titling this simply “Bethesda” instead of “Bethesda Press Conference” because Bethesda actually somehow managed to show up in just about every other show in addition to their own, and they somewhat annoyingly revealed stuff in places that were not their actual event (I would have been royally pissed at Bethesda had I not also watched the Sony show. I still kind of am a bit, but I’ll get to that). Actually, Nintendo did too: Apparently cameos and cross-promotions are the name of the game now, or maybe that says something about the position these two companies now have within the industry.

But they sure started strong. I really appreciated this candid showcase of interviews with developers and their children talking about why they love making video games and why they find it important, meaningful creative work that makes them feel proud to bring joy to people. Pete Hines spelled it out in his intro, saying that Bethesda makes games for everyone by delivering experiences unlike anything else, tying the whole presentation together with a fun mock-Disneyland theme. That Bethesda went with a Disneyland motif this of all years is just one of those fun little bits of synchronicity that tickles me whenever I notice it, and Pete Hines’ sentiments echo Nintendo’s classic manifesto (hi UESP *waves*), and set the tone for the best of E3 this year.

We first got another look at Bethesda’s virtual reality offerings, VR now being an established platform for many gamers who are not as poor as me.

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June 15, 2016

E3 2016: Nintendo Treehouse Live

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Almost every year, I like to digitally “attend” the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, the biggest trade show in the video game industry. Since I started blogging regularly six years ago, I’ve tried to provide readers some written coverage of the show’s numerous press conferences for the benefit of anyone interested in my raw thoughts on the week of product reveals and announcements. This year, I’m pleased to be able to bring my E3 coverage, such as it is, to Eruditorum Press. The following is a part of a series I’m writing on E3 2016, looking at the press conferences and events of three major players in the industry: Bethesda Softworks, Sony Computer Entertainment and Nintendo.

I was happy to learn Nintendo were the last on the docket for the big media events this week. Nintendo were the first company to usher in the modern video game industry as we know it, and Nintendo remain to this day one of the only publishers/development houses in the AAA space who retain a link to the artistic philosophy and sense of creative energy that at least seemed to guide the medium at one time. No matter what else happens at E3, I can always count on Nintendo to give me at least one thing to leave the week feeling charmed and inspired by. The one show I deliberately skipped in recent history out of my abject disgust for the direction the industry has taken, E3 2014, was also the year I sorely regret skipping because Nintendo dominated the show with a suite of bombshell reveals that reminded everyone what video games actually should be about and once stood for. Among them was Hyrule Warriors, Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors spinoff set in the Legend of Zelda universe, which earlier this year spawned what’s become my single favourite game in recent memory and current obsession: Hyrule Warriors Legends. Legends joins an incredibly select group of games that have left a lasting, personally meaningful impression on me and that will stay with me forever. The Elder Scrolls V is on that list, and the rest are mostly other Nintendo games.

Also introduced at that fateful E3 event in 2014 was the game we now know as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which was the big topic du jour. Nintendo didn’t hold a traditional press conference this year, and in fact seem to have stopped doing so entirely. Unlike a traditional stage show or the “Nintendo Direct” digital events the company has relied on to communicate with their fans recently (which Nintendo seem to be slowly phasing out following the tragic death of former president Satoru Iwata last year), Nintendo this time opted to present what they called a “Nintendo Treehouse Live”, an all-day series of scripted interviews and gameplay demos with a succession of PR representatives and developers. And when they said all day, they meant all day: The stream started at 12 PM my time and didn’t stop until around 6 or 7 at night.

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June 14, 2016

E3 2016: Sony Press Conference

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I won’t be buying a PlayStaton 4.

Announced last week ahead of E3 by publisher Square-Enix (who don’t have a press conference this year), Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is an expanded re-release of another of my favourite games-The one non-Pokémon JRPG to ever truly capture my heart. To date, it’s only been confirmed for a PlayStation 4 release, but every Final Fantasy reissue has found its way to other platforms eventually, and I have confidence this one won’t be any different. The whole reason I watched Sony’s press conference, which I otherwise had zero interest in, was to see if they would have some more to say about the re-release, particularly if it was going to be a platform exclusive or not, but Zodiac Age was a no-show. That, along with the at that point unnamed and unannounced The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Special Edition, was really going to be the deciding factor in whether or not I would bite the bullet and buy a PlayStation 4. But with TESV coming to PC and no more word on Zodiac Age at the big Sony song-and-dance (…literally, as last night’s show was no bullshit fully scored by a live orchestra) I’ve no reason to get a PS4, especially considering how incensed I still am by their subscriber-only online multiplayer service PSN Plus.

But I’m not just not buying the system. After last night, in fact, I feel like actively boycotting it. This was one of the most offensive and insulting press conferences I’ve seen in all my years doing this show.

After a preposterously long and ponderously self-indulgent orchestrated introduction, Sony literally lifted the curtain to show off its first big reveal: A reboot of the fan favourite sixth generation franchise God of War. In this series you play Kratos, a cartoonishly overmuscled he-man who, feeling betrayed by his gods after the death of his family, goes out on a mission to personally brutally murder and dismember each and every one of them. I would argue it is a series that is, to use the language of the hip SJWs these days, “problematic”. The gameplay demo, set this time in a world inspired by Norse mythology instead of the classical Greek and Roman mythology of the original series, shows the new Kratos being a stern hardass with his son, a prospective hunter.

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June 13, 2016

E3 2016: Bethesda Press Conference

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Last year, Bethesda gave its debut press conference at E3. It was a symbolic move indicating that the company, long known for its quality output, ethical business practices and loyal fanbase, had become a major enough player in the industry that it deserved to stand alongside the biggest names in the game like EA, Ubisoft and Microsoft. And though they didn’t actually reveal a ton of new stuff, they revealed enough to keep people talking all throughout the show: Fallout 4 and Fallout Shelter stole the spotlight, while Doom and Dishonored 2 were pleasant surprises. This year was much of the same-Not a whole lot of “new” information per se, but enough (including one bombshell announcement I literally cannot wait to talk about, let alone play) to leave us with a good feeling. Over the past five years Bethesda has established themselves as my absolute favourite non-Nintendo AAA development studio and publishing house (basically meaning the only one I can still even remotely tolerate, though that does undersell them), and they sure didn’t disappoint last night.

First up was Quake Champions. All we got to see was a reveal trailer, but that was enough to get me excited. I’ve always been more of a Quake person than a Doom person (though that’s not to say I’m anything like a master of either) because I prefer to take my first-person shooters as old-fashioned multiplayer arena affairs. Suffice to say I have fond memories of Quake III: Arena, and I’m really happy id Software and Bethesda seem to be trying to bring that scene back by filtering it through e-sports to update it for modern audiences, hopefully without losing what made the original concept great. They pulled off the balance with this year’s new Doom, so I’m confidant they can do it for Quake too. Interviews with the developers after the show seemed to indicate Bethesda/id are taking cues from recent games like Splatoon and Overwatch, where you find a character or class of weapon that fits your preferred playstyle and gain mastery in it, or jump between various classes as you see fit, which I think is a great way to utilize and update Quake’s cast of characters. I just really hope by the time it comes out I’ll have a gaming rig that can actually run it.

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