E3 2018 in Review

Folks, another E3 has come and gone, and this one was a real rollercoaster. We had some of the cringiest conferences in my time as a gamer, and we had some reveals that made me feel like a kid on Christmas morning. This time around, I have a few categories to go through. Hopefully they'll be self-explanatory, because unlike certain presenters this year, I don't want to blabber on about stuff nobody cares about when everyone is here for the games. Let's get started!




Conferences:
As usual, I only watched the major conferences this year. Sorry, PC Gamers and Devolver Digital, but you won't be on this list. As I'm sure you've already gathered, this is a ranking of the major press conferences from worst to best. A conference's spot on this list is determined by a few things: 1) good reveals, 2) gameplay demonstration, and 3) show quality. I think virtually everybody on Earth is in agreement about which conference was the worst and which was the best, but just in case, here goes!



Worst Conference: EA

EA's conference this year was a shameful display of corporate allegiance to shareholders, lack of understanding of the gamers that follow along with events like E3, and CEO Andrew Wilson's annual reminder that he's the last person who needs to be running a game company. The conference started off with what I believe is a B-list Twitch streamer or something like that announcing that she would be hosting the show. And you know what? She did her best with what she had. There was so little actual gameplay on display at this conference that she was tasked with essentially doing EA's job, and though I thought she was cringey as hell as a hostess, I can't fault her for it when she had so little to work with. Anywho, EA went on to show an uninformative trailer for Battlefield V that did nothing to make me care and did nothing to sell itself as a game. But then, just when you thought that EA couldn't be more of a bandwagoning, out-of-touch dinosaur, the presenters announced (with smug, self-satisfied looks on their faces) that Battlefield V would have no loot boxes, and instead would have....a Battle Royale mode!!! The cacophany of boos from the audience was incredibly satisfying, to say the least, but I doubt EA learned anything from it.
Then there were some sports games...and with them, yet another example of EA being out of touch. They got a Madden eSports champion up on stage and interviewed him in a manner that screams "LOOK, INVESTORS! LOOK HOW MUCH MONEY WE CAN MAKE WITH OUR GAMES!" It was cringeworthy and boring, and I personally used this time to start cooking dinner.
Anyway, they made a valiant effort to save face with the whole "no loot boxes" thing on Battlefield V and tried to continue that trend with their presentation of new content for Star Wars: Battlefront II, complete with an apology and a promise to do better. But then I realized something: One of the developers of Battlefront II was making that apology. Once I realized the implication, my hatred of Andrew Wilson only grew. The man made one of the Battlefront II developers apologize for what was undoubtedly his handiwork. He was likely the one forcing the lootboxes into the game, but he wasn't about to lose face, so he essentially threw one of his employees under the bus. I swear, EA's next project is going to be destroying the local duck pond to build a parking lot.
But I digress. Andrew Wilson came on stage with his punchable face and poured out the usual slew of "aren't I a good boy, investors?" buzzwords and announced an improvement to EA's Origin service....*stifles laughter*.
After this, there were a couple of Indie Projects shown, and I have to admit that this was the high point of the show. EA may be cancer when it comes to stifling creative freedom, but they do seem to be encouraging Indie developers with sincerity lately. The first presenter was the developer of Unravel, who, to this day, holds a special place in my heart (but more on that later). Then there was the german developer of the upcoming Sea of Solitude. Both these presenters were so excited to share what they'd been making, and I just wish EA could understand how beautiful that is.
It's possible that I'm out of order now, but EA then spent approximately twenty minutes showing, once again, how out of touch and enslaved to investors they are. They got two additional b-list twitch streamers/youtubers/whatever to come out and play against each other in their new mobile strategy game, Command and Conquer: Rivals, which I understand is a mobile reimagining of a beloved strategy game....hmmmmmmm....I wonder why EA would convert something like that into a mobile game? I wonder why they would spend twenty minutes demoing something like that? It's almost as if the mobile market is ripe for unquestioned microtransactions and they want to show their investors that they have another money sink that'll earn money by way of nostalgia...really EA, have you no shame?
The show ended with an extended Q&A session with Bioware about their upcoming game, Anthem. This Q&A admittedly cleared up some of my reservations about the game, but it wasn't enough to get me excited.
Ultimately, EA's conference this year was cringeworthy, full of failed attempts to garner attention with minor celebrities, showed very little gameplay, revealed little that we didn't already know about, and showed that for all its talks of "being better from now on," EA is a lying snake in the grass that we should all be cautious of.



Second Worst Conference: Nintendo

In spite of my well-documented disdain for Nintendo, I was really looking forward to this year's press conference video (since Nintendo no longer holds official conferences). With the reveal of Metroid Prime 4 at last year's E3 and with the reveal of Pokemon: Let's Go a few weeks ago, I was looking forward to seeing more of both of these titles, as well as what else might be in development for the switch. While we did get a little bit more information about Pokemon: Let's Go, most of what we were shown was just a rehash of what was leaked a few weeks ago. What's more, there was absolutely no mention whatsoever of Metroid Prime 4, and indeed, most of the games for the switch were glossed over in a two-minute montage video without any commentary. So, what was done in the other 3/4 of the show? A game that I like to call Super Smash Bros: We know you'll keep paying us for the exact same game over and over again because you played Smash Bros as a kid and you're blinded by nostalgia, so fork it over you sheep! They legitimately spent half an hour revealing every last secret about the new Smash Bros game and patting themselves on the back for accomplishing the incredibly difficult and demanding task of having every character in Smash Bros history in the same game. Nintendo as a company is like Spectrum internet's marketing team: I already have spectrum internet and will continue to use it, so why are you still sending me advertisements for it? As for Nintendo, Smash Bros will never draw in new people. The kinds of people who are inclined to purchase Smash Bros would buy it at the drop of a hat even if every character were hidden behind a paywall. I guarantee Nintendo hasn't earned a single new player with its half an hour long Smash Bros presentation. The money that was going to make was already accounted for, and as a result of spending so much time preaching to the choir, Nintendo failed to draw potential new buyers to the switch with other titles. If they'd so much as spent more time on Pokemon, or gave more new switch ports the time of day, I guarantee they would've convinced a few more people to spend their money on a switch. As it stands, though, Nintendo's conference was uninformative, broke no new ground, spent all its time marketing to people who don't need to be marketed to, and was overall just a colossal disappointment.



Third Worst Conference: Square Enix

There's not much to say about Square Enix's conference. Like Nintendo's, it was just a video, but it was inoffensive, at least. Literally every title they showed had already been shown in previous conferences, however, so there weren't any surprises except for a bit more gameplay footage from Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Ultimately, it was just kind of forgettable.



Meh-est Conference: Ubisoft

Ubisoft's conference made me furious at the end, but we'll get to that in the actual game portion. It was a tossup between Ubisoft and Square Enix for the spot of "meh." Both were ultimately forgettable, but in the end, Ubisoft's conference at least showed some gameplay for just about all of the titles it discussed. It was enough to make me feel cautiously optimistic about at least some of the games on display, and that at least puts it above the previous entries on this list. However, there weren't enough good games on display to make it a good conference. There was some DLC for For Honor, the usual slew of dancing games that nobody cares about, the usual "LOOK AT US WE'RE SO QUIRKY" presenters that immediately make me put their games in the "bad" column just because of their attitudes, but no cringey hosts this time around. The bad ultimately outweighs the good, but meh.



Third Best Conference: Sony

I personally found Sony's conference to be a little underwhelming from a "new stuff" standpoint, but I do hold that its structure is absolutely the ideal. There were no big corporate speeches, no meaningless buzzwords or CEOs spending too much time talking about things nobody cares about. It was all gameplay and some musical performances that were relevant to the games on display. I enjoyed the demos for nearly everything they showed, and the fact that I got to see so much does wonders for my likelihood of buying (though I'm still 100% against the idea of The Last of Us, Part II). There were some lame titles and some titles I didn't care about, but it was a good (and was by far the most informative) conference.



Second Best Conference: Microsoft

I can't say that anything I saw at Microsoft's conference compelled me to go out and get an Xbox One, but as a conference, Microsoft's was excellent. They showed over 50 games and spent some time and attention on most of them. In fact, most of the games I'm excited for or am cautiously optimistic about came out of this conference. In spite of not selling me on Microsoft's platforms, it's quite the feat to show enough of so many titles that I fill up my notes as quickly as I did. What's more, there was some degree of corporate updates, but they weren't of the "we at EA are dedicated to one thing: Guympluy and pluy-er experience" variety. Rather, whenever Executive President Phil Spencer came on stage to do these corporate updates, they were all about specifics. "We've acquired these 5 studios whose works you probably already know, and we're going to be working with them," "We're going to make it easier and faster for you to stream games with our upcoming update to this service," to name just a few. So, not only did Microsoft show a lot at their conference, they also shared relevant business updates in a way that appeared to be speaking to the players, not to shareholders. I (figuratively) walked away from Microsoft's conference with plenty of positive notes and a feeling of "wow, that was a great conference." Excellent work, Microsoft, but there was one conference that had you beat.





Best Conference: Bethesda

Bethesda's conference started off on sort of a rough note. They went from an awkward musical performance from Andrew W.K. to an awkward bit of discussion about Rage 2 where one of the presenters either got stage fright or forgot his lines, resulting in a lot of silence and head nodding for a solid couple of minutes. After recovering from this stumble, however, Bethesda ran full steam ahead with a slew of exciting reveals. Firstly, they demoed gameplay from Rage 2, and the demo was good enough to make me excited, in spite of the fact that I was bored to tears by the original Rage. Then they moved on to the reveal of Doom Eternal, which had me screaming with excitement in the group chat I had with my brothers who were also watching the conference at the time. Then there were some other announcements that didn't quite carry as much weight after Doom Eternal. Then, the one and only Todd Howard took the stage and stole the show. Firstly, he had the daunting task of announcing the terrible news that Fallout 76 is a multiplayer game. I was initially pissed off by that, but as only Todd Howard could, he soothed my fears to such a degree that I was no longer completely opposed to it. Afterwards, he announced an Elder Scrolls mobile game that I didn't even remotely care about, followed by the reveal of a new IP called Starfield. Then, as if understanding that people were going to be underwhelmed by the mobile Elder Scrolls game, Howard closed out the conference with the groundbreaking announcement of The Elder Scrolls VI, which had me jumping up and down in spite of the lack of information. Bethesda earns this spot because of the sheer excitement factor that they imbued in me, but they also stood out because once Todd Howard took the stage, the conference just became a joy to watch, even during the demo of the mobile game. The fact that Bethesda was able to effectively quell my fears about a multiplayer game and get me as excited as they did solidifies their spot as the winners of this E3.





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The Bad:
At last we get to the actual meat. This first list breaks down the games that I personally believe will suck, the games that I found myself actively opposing even though they might not suck, and the games for which the reveals or presentations sucked. This is a good time to point out that this is a purely subjective list, because I know that at least one entry here is going to get me burned at the stake. If you see an entry you disagree with...too bad. My list, my rules, my opinions, and if you were me then I'd be you! Then I'd use your body to write these entries! You can't stop me no matter who you are!
Outdated references aside, here we go. Worst games from E3 2018.



10): The Last of Us, Part II

Alright, so "bad" isn't exactly the correct word here. After all, Sony's highly scripted gameplay demo actually looked quite good. However, I still hold that the fact that there's going to be a sequel to The Last of Us is an abomination unto God. The Last of Us had a perfect ending that needed no follow-up. Even if Part II is good, it can literally do nothing but cheapen the original game. I'll end up buying it, and I may end up liking it, but I'm going to kick and scream and complain about it all the way.



9): Trover Saves the Universe

"From the creators or Rick and Morty" probably says everything that needs to be said about this game. Look, I enjoyed Rick and Morty as much as the next guy, but lately I've been thinking that its creators aren't quite as great as I initially thought. They have one joke: Stuttering and stating something over and over again. The same is true of the trailer for Trover Saves the Universe. "Hey, I'm the..the g-guy in the bathtub, that's me, the guy in the bathtub. Oh look I'm playing, I'm playing this game in the bathtub because t-that's me, the guy in the bathtub." It's just kind of insufferable at this point.



8): Starlink: Battle for Atlas

I fully recognize that this is a niche game for people with very specific tastes, but I've just never understood the appeal of using figurines or whatever to interface with gameplay. It just feels like one large gimmick.



7): Dragon Quest XI

Notorious game critic Yahtzee Croshaw has a word he uses to refer to JRPGs: "twee." That's the word that came to mind as I watched the trailer for Dragon Quest XI. Just another twee power of friendship JRPG. The "power of friendship" meter seemed really high on this one. I could be wrong, but that's my assumption.



6): Kingdom Hearts 3

*immediately picks up a shield*
WAIT
*ducks under table*
I SAID WAIT
*dodges tomatoes*
HOLD ON
*struggles to escape from ropes binding him to stake*
Look, I get it. You grew up playing Kingdom Hearts. I didn't. If I had, I'd probably be beside myself with excitement. As it stands, though, as I watched this trailer I had only one thought: This is legitimately the most stupid thing I've ever seen *effortlessly dodges a thrown boot*. The fact that I recognize this game isn't for me is the reason it's this far down the list. Otherwise it would be my #1 worst game of E3 just from how completely stupid it looks from both a concept and gameplay standpoint.



5): All the Sports and Racing games except for Trials Rising

They're sports games. That's literally all there is to it.



4): Trials Rising

Like a sports game, but with an insufferable "look how quirky I am" presenter. That earns it its own spot on this list.



3): Session

Like a sports game, but with skating.



2): Command and Conquer: Rivals

A staple of corporate greed, a staple of corporate out-of-touchness, a staple of poor decisions. Command and Conquer: Rivals is a strategy mobile game that shares the name of what I understand to be a well-beloved strategy title. It's an obvious cash grab that will obviously be laden with microtransactions and paywall-based gameplay.





Worst Game of E3): Assassin's Creed: Odyssey

Ubisoft should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. They're basically re-selling Assassin's Creed: Origins and acting like it's a new product. They ripped the UI, the art assets, the animations, the gameplay, all of it from Origins. Everything in the UI still looks Egyptian! It's a blatant asset flip being sold to us as its own game! You may be wondering what innovations Ubisoft is making to make up for this fact, and don't be alarmed, they're really raising the bar. Are you ready?


You can play as a woman and there are dialogue options!.........


Congratulations, Ubisoft, you've caught up with the rest of the world.
What else is there? Nothing. The setting of Ancient Greece is basically the same as the greek portions of Origins, so it's not like they had to do much work.
Now, I know what you may be thinking: "Reagan, you liked Rogue well enough, and it was pretty much a rip off of Black Flag". That's true, but the thing about Black Flag was that it was a good game, and while Origins wasn't bad, it wasn't groundbreaking. Not only that, but Ubisoft was simultaneously working on Unity for the PS4/Xbox One, and Rogue was their way of giving PS3/Xbox 360 owners some additional Assassin's Creed content as well. Odyssey is nothing like that! It's being touted as the next thing for Assassin's Creed, but it's even more derivative than Rogue was. At first, I was truly excited about an Assassin's Creed game set in Ancient Greece. That's a setting I've always wanted! However, after watching the gameplay demo I found myself completely furious at how stupid Ubisoft seems to think we all are. And watching the presenter look so smug and proud of himself as he announced that they had gone through the rigorous and groundbreaking task of letting you play as a woman only added insult to injury. Give us a copy-paste job and pass off basic rpg features as innovation, that's the name of the game in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, the worst game shown at E3 2018.





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The Meh:
This category is for the games that just didn't strike a chord with me. I don't think they'll suck, nor do I particularly expect much from them. These were the ones I just...didn't really care about.



10): Just Cause 4

Re-used assets from Just Cause 3 and serving as a sequel to a game that wasn't exactly crying out for one is not a particularly compelling package.



9): The Elder Scrolls: Blades

It's a mobile game, but it's Elder Scrolls and it looks like some effort went in it.



8): Nioh 2

Nioh was pretty much the definition of "meh," so its sequel is no different.



7): The Quiet Man

Indeed, a man who is quiet says about as much as the trailer for The Quiet Man, that is to say, not much at all.



6): The Division 2

Pro-tip, game developers. If you use simulated mission chatter in your trailer, you're going on this list. And if you're a sequel to a "meh" game, that's double your odds of going on this list.



5): Wolfenstein: Young Blood

Because what a classic franchise like Wolfenstein really needs is co-op and the removal of its iconic protagonist.



4): Halo: Infinite

More like Halo: What is this?



3): Super Mario Party

Super Mario Party: Another One



2): Super Smash Bros

Super Smash Bros: Another one for people to defend to a frankly obsessive degree.





Meh-est Game of E3): Crackdown 3

There's showing you destruction and fun, and then there's desperately showing you destruction and fun. That's what Crackdown 3 has always looked like to me. "Please please please please please notice how many explosions there are! We can be fun! Just give us a chance." As funny as the "quack quack motherf***er" line actually was, the whole trailer was just so desperate, and we're yet to see any of the actual destruction and chaos even now, a couple of years from when this was first announced. Why so insecure, Crackdown 3?





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The Cautiously Optimistic:
These were the games that I found myself excited for, but either 1) there wasn't any gameplay and the reveal itself wasn't exciting enough or 2) I have reason to believe that it actually won't be that good, in spite of some positive feelings.



10): Metro: Exodus

It's another one, and I typically enjoy the Metro games, but it just isn't enough to get me truly excited.



9): Gears of War 5

It looks like Microsoft is taking some departures from the norm in this one, but we'll just have to wait and see.



8): Shadow of the Tomb Raider

I've never been a Tomb Raider fan, and I only got a few minutes into the first of the reboot games before I got bored. However, gameplay looks at least somewhat less derivative in this one.



7): Devil May Cry 5

I never played any of the original DMC games, but for whatever reason, the teaser for Devil May Cry 5  spoke to the Doom and God of War-lover in me...which is fitting, considering that Devil May Cry ultimately inspired God of War's gameplay.



6): Skull & Bones

The gameplay demo that Ubisoft showed looked fantastic. Sure, it's a blatant ripoff of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, but there are worse things to be. My hesitation comes from the fact that this seems to be a multiplayer-focused game, which instantly ruins anything it touches that isn't made by From Software or the makers of Journey.



5): Spider Man

Sony's Spider Man has made my good list for the past few years, but the extended gameplay demo shown at this year's E3 started to make me question it. In past years, this game has looked to be an Arkham-esque kind of comic book game, where things look and feel comic-y without feeling corny. However, in this demo, things look unbelievably corny. Now, Spider Man just looks like a run-of-the-mill comic game, and that has made me pretty hesitant.



4): Beyond Good & Evil 2

I don't have a dog in this fight, considering I never played the original Beyond Good and Evil. However, the trailers I've been seeing have made this game look promising. I initially had this on the vanilla "good" column of my notes...but then they came out and announced the whole community contribution thing. This game has been in production for as long as I've been watching E3, and then they come out and ask potential players to contribute their art and music to "make this game feel more like a community project"? Then they bring out Joseph Gordon-Levitt to address the audience and say how cool it is to contribute your ideas to this game? Beyond Good and Evil? More like Beyond Fishy.



3): Anthem

I love Bioware. I love their stories, characters, and a lot of their gameplay. However, my excitement for Anthem is tampered by the multiplayer aspect and the co-op aspect. Sure, it's a single player experience in the towns, but most of the time will supposedly have multiplayer components? Bioware has never done good multiplayer, so it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. The last thing I want in my Bioware story experience is to have some tiny-dinosaur-brained backwards hat-wearing rando who sees my name and thinks I'm a woman chattering into my ear about how he "so totally shot that guy? Did you f***ing see that?!" and gets legitimately upset about losing. People are a cancer, so the last thing I want in my Bioware game is to have to interact with them. However, after the Q&A session, I feel a little less hesitant about the idea. We'll just have to wait and see.



2): Fallout 76

I'm always up for a new Bethesda RPG, but like with Anthem, I've never experience good multiplayer from Bethesda. That's why I was so devastated when my hero, Todd Howard, announced that Fallout 76 would be a multiplayer game. After all, the last thing I want in my Bethesda RPG is to have some tiny-dinosaur-brained backwards hat and underarmor-wearing rando who sees my name and thinks I'm a woman and therefore tries to teach me about the game because I don't talk chattering into my ear about how he "so totally nuked that settlement? Did you f***ing see that?!" and gets legitimately upset when I turn around and kill him so that I can go back to my peace and quiet. People are a cancer, so the last thing I want in my solitary wasteland experience is to have to interact with them. However, as only Todd Howard could, he effectively soothed my fears and reassured me that I could still play solo. We'll see how that plays out, but for now, my hesitance is lessened, but it's still there.





Most Tentatively Exciting Game of E3): Ghost of Tsushima

Sony's demo of Ghost of Tsushima looked beautiful. An open-world adventure set in ancient China is the kind of thing I've always wanted to play. Sure, I'm a little bothered that it's voiced in english, but there are worse fates that can befall such a game. The soundtrack was gorgeous, the world itself looked beautiful and unique, and the setting of the mongol invasion had all sorts of potential. Where I started to feel a little worried was when the combat actually started up. It just looked a little standard, like an Assassin's Creed-esque "wait to counter" affair. It looked fun, but I still felt that maybe Sony wasn't doing enough with what it had. In any case, I have my doubts about Ghost of Tsushima, but it's the game that I'm most excited for in spite of those doubts.





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The Good:
Finally, these were the games that either won me over with the gameplay or were exciting enough as reveals to get me pumped in spite of a lack of details. This would be another good time to point out that this list is highly subjective, so if you don't see an item that you think should be on this list, then I'm sorry to hear that as long as that item isn't Super Smash Bros or Kingdom Hearts 3. Let's do this!



10): Unravel Two

One of my most cherished memories of watching E3 was back in 2015 when developer Martin Sahlen came up on stage during EA's conference to demo Unravel. He was so excited to demo this game he had made, and he even brought out a little doll of yarny, Unravel's protagonist. It legitimately made me beam ear to ear to see this man's passion, and though I never actually got around to playing Unravel, I wanted desperately for Sahlen to be able to develop more. Well, this year, he came back to demo Unravel Two, and his presentation was filled with the same passion and excitement as the first time. Unravel Two is currently available, and I haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but you can bet I'll be taking a stab at it for the sake of this developer if nothing else.



9): Sea of Solitude

Three cheers for passionate indie developers. Developer Cornelia Geppert was the second indie developer that took the stage at EA's press conference this year, and her passion was as refreshing as Martin Sahlen's. Sea of Solitude is a game about loneliness and the effect that it has on people, and given how I cry myself to sleep every night because the only people who want me are randos who see my name and think I'm a woman, this is a topic that really resonates with me....
..........umm...anyway, it looks to be as charming and deep as these kinds of indie games typically are, and the passion behind it is clear. You can bet that I'll be adding Sea of Solitude to my collection when it comes out.



8): The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit

Life is Strange is something of an oddity for me. On one hand, it had some of the most God-awful writing in any game I've ever played. On the other hand, however, I legitimately felt the stakes at every turn and connected with the characters (except Max...so lame). At the time, it was obvious that developer Dontnod Entertainment had storytelling chops, but that it just needed to get over the "are you for cereal" writing bump. For whatever reason, as The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit was being shown, I thought that this was going to be the short game that proved this point. Captain Spirit follows a little boy conquering problems as a made-up superhero, Captain Spirit, and from what I've seen, the boy becomes Captain Spirit as a way to cope with some of the hardships he faces. If Dontnod pulls off what I believe they're trying to pull off, Captain Spirit may very well be a fantastic exploration of the bonds of family and the impact of imagination on one's well-being...or I could just be pretentious...we'll see.



7): Cyberpunk 2077

When a game generates hype from its developer's pedigree alone, you know that the developer must be good. In this case, the developer is CD Projekt Red, developers of The Witcher series. Beyond the strength of the Witcher games, Red has more than proven their worth as developers with the sheer content they pack into their games; things like the official soundtrack, manuals, stickers, lots of stuff that AAA developers normally charge extra for. With such a strong portfolio and good reputation, how could one not be excited about Cyberpunk 2077. Sure, details are sparse other than that the gameplay will take the form of an FPS, but I think that CD Projekt Red can handle this.



6): Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Speaking of generating hype from developer pedigree, we have Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which comes to us via From Software, developers of the immortal Souls saga as well as Bloodborne. Sekiro appears to be a samurai game with the tried and true skill-over-stats gameplay model that the Souls series is known for. However, this time around, gameplay appears to be more vertical. The trailers show the player grappling on top of structures and onto large enemies in a way that signals something of a departure from the primarily horizontal structure of previous From Software titles. What I saw looked thrilling, and though this game does have the infamously greedy Activision as a publisher, I feel confident that From Software will be able to maintain their creative freedom while simultaneously getting the added financial backing that Activision is capable of providing.



5): Tunic

Tunic appears to be a Hyper Light Drifter-esque top down rpg starring an adorable fox as a protagonist. That's about all I know from what was shown, but I was sold from the moment I saw that fox...what can I say? I'm a cheap date.



4): Rage 2

If you've been a reader of mine since 2016, you'll know that I'm an enormous fan of Doom (the 2016 reboot), so I'll gladly lap up anything that feels like it's in the same vein. While the original Rage was as boring as boring can be, Rage 2's gameplay demo felt significantly faster-paced. It looked like the same aggressive model found in Doom, but in a nuclear wasteland instead. I personally found myself on the edge of my seat as I watched the on-screen combat go down, and this was all the more surprising given that this game's marketing sports the same "look at us we're so quirky" attitude that normally automatically lands a game in the "bad" column of my notes. I could be wrong. Rage 2 may end up being as dull as the first. For now, however, I'm keeping my eye on the calendar in preparation to pick it up.



3): Death Stranding

Legendary game director Hideo Kojima's latest title has had viewers stumped for the past few E3s. I believe we were shown some gameplay at Sony's press conference this time around, but I honestly couldn't say. What I can say, however, is that Death Stranding, from what we've been shown, is morbidly fascinating. Ethereal monsters tied to the sky with equally ethereal umbilical cords, having to wear a baby on the front of you to avoid being killed by the monsters, implications of time travel and traversing death, the theories are everywhere, and I couldn't help but keep my eyes glued to the screen the whole time. It could be that Kojima plans to make this a David Cage style QTE-fest, and that would admittedly be a little disappointing. However, with such incredible intrigue, I can't say it would turn me off of the game. Details about Death Stranding are still scarce, but I've found myself utterly fascinated every time some of it has been shown, and this year has pretty much sold me on it even without confirmation that we've seen gameplay.



2): Doom Eternal

You may recall approximately two items down on this list that I said I was an enormous fan of 2016's Doom. It should come as no surprise, then, that the reveal of Doom Eternal had me shaking in my chair. Sure, there weren't very many details other than there will be twice as many demons and Doom Guy will get to feel even more powerful to play as. As sparse as those details are, they don't exactly make me less excited. Count it as incredibly subjective if you must, but I'm practically giddy at the thought of getting able to butcher my way through additional hordes of demons.





Most Exciting Game of E3): Skyrim: Very Special Edition

Just kidding.















Actual Most Exciting Game of E3): The Elder Scrolls VI

Go ahead! Take points off my report card because I'm a filthy rotten fanboy who started jumping up and down with literally no details announced if you must, but my list, my rules! I personally wasn't expecting such an announcement, so when it happened, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep that night. Even though this game is probably going to come out in like 5 years, this reveal did its job.  There are theories galore about where this new adventure will take place. My personal opinion, given the ocean in the background, is that it'll take place either in the Khajit province of Elswyr or the Redguard homeland of Hammerfell. Regardless, the fact remains that we now have confirmation of a brand new Elder Scrolls title. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was the first game that I ever truly felt compelled to role play in, and the adventures I've taken my characters on in this saga have been some of my most treasured experiences in gaming. So, I'm looking forward to seeing adventures await my Elder Scrolls staple character.








Well folks, there it is. Now get lost.