I was going to do this after work yesterday, and while I was tempted to "accidentally" delete this thread or merge it with a new one made by me, I'll be nice.
You know, while there can be a lot said about the importance (or further lack thereof....) of E3, and a lot of cynical swipes at AAA game development in general especially after the Fall we just had, if you really step back and look at Gaming in general, honestly, you can argue it's better then it's ever been. Indie games have really, really come into its own in the last couple years, as development tools and engines got more affordable and available, and now people who would've had to contend with publishers sticking their fingers into their pot or flat out being unable to bring their ideas to reality are relatively easily able to develop and create their own games with small teams, like the four people making No Man's Sky or the one guy who made Axiom Verge. It's a nice counterpoint to the insane, bloated budgets of games like Destiny's half a billion dollars or games that sell 3 - 4 million copies being deemed failures because all these other games under performed, so now all of them get black listed. There's a lot of good stuff out there, more then ever, objectively, and even amongst the disasters of buggy Ubisoft games, an unfortunately timed Cops vs Robbers + Collateral Damage, and a disappointing MMO that try to pretend its not because you shoot a gun, stuff like Shadow of Mordor or Witcher Wild Hunt are amazing, even if not perfect. Hell, both the latter and Dragon Age Inquisition, as janky as they can be movement-wise, have clearly resonated with the people looking forward to them and are a pair of good, solid games even with the obvious flaws.
I think the real question as I alluded is whether or not E3 matters all that much anymore. It's still a great time of the year with announcements and reveals and all, but more and more with not just social media but just how easy it is for companies' PR teams and the actual executives and development team themselves to reach out to the audience, This, lest people forget, is a trade show, for businesses like Gamestop or Best Buy and Target to come see new stuff and make their decisions on what to buy for the coming year, it sort of just evolved into a weird mutant version of itself where the news that comes out is aimed more and more at the consumers instead of purchasers, while still being a private show that oddly enough has gotten tougher and tougher to sneak into unless you're a celebrity and/or his/her kid. Scaling down was obviously not the right decision as how the Santa Monica one a few years back went completely poorly, but I don't know if opening it to the public on just one day a la TGS would do any good either, since Cons like PAX and whatnot are much, much better places to interact with upcoming games. For all the shit people give them, I kinda think Nintendo, objectively, has the right idea with the Digital Event and I'm stunned that, one, they of all companies came up with the idea, and two, no one else has copied them. It's an event where they can get the info and footage and all that out that they want, and they can control it to preserve their message and the expectation they want it to have. The one and only negative to it is the lack of a live reaction to news, but obviously they think it's the right way for them to go. Money clearly isn't the biggest factor because for the last two years they've still gone and rented out the Nokia theater for the SSB Invitational and the Nintendo World Championships this year, and they sorta get the best of being live since by all indications that Smash Event was just filled to the brim with rabid fans who actually know who people like Sakurai and Reggie and all the execs actually are and genuinely scream happily for them. I highly suspect that they'll take advantage of the atmosphere and reveal something there.
There's also the unfortunate side effect of the greater audience being ignorant of the fact that all of these early demos and reveal trailers are just that.....early. Some of the blame definitely lies in the publishers for maybe not stating it out loud like they should, but as a general rule anything shown early is very much subject to change for the sake of the game itself running properly or being fun and sacrifices end up having to be made for the game itself to be better. All the belly aching about "DEVELOPER AND JOURNALISM COLLUSION!!!!" regarding graphics "downgrades" isn't that so much as most game journalists and writers don't think about the little disclaimer because of course that's a game in development, it's a given things will change. To their credit, a few places like Giant Bomb are getting a lot better about realizing that their readers don't have the same frame of reference they do and do point out that anything can change in early versions of games, and while most people SHOULD probably realize that when showing stuff off, it's hardly the conspiracy and den of lies the internet makes it out to be.
Anyway, regardless of relevance, E3 is next week, and because I'm sick today and am getting antsy lying in bed while still being too weak to do an awful lot beyond laying in bed or sitting in a chair, I'll dot he thing I used to do but haven't because I got too busy and just....drone on awhile for what we might expect from everyone, from the perspective of a guy who likes games but isn't even remotely informed enough to be a Games writer. So eh, I guess we can do this by conference order.
And note, I've been specifically ignoring all the "leaked" news because dammit I want to be surprised, so a lot of my predictions will inevitably already be proven or disproven by now. Whatever.
Bethesda
First time ever press conference, and obviously, we all know about Fallout 4 now. I suspect we'll also get to at least hear about if not see Dishonored 2 or whatever game Arkane is making, and of course Doom will pop up. Their new MOBA will be round and hopefully won't take up too much time, but eh, who knows. There's room for a surprise here or there, though there's definitely two thoughts that come form them revealing Fallout so early. Either "Wait, if they're showing THIS off, what are they hiding!?" or "Let's get this out of the way so we can look at the actual demo without the excitement blinding everyone." I have got to give them credit in regards to that trailer though, no BS super powerful computer graphics, they're showing off something believable and acceptable so that the final game won't have a bunch of morons crying foul on the devs "lying" as stated above, or hey, it looks better then the early demos, awesome! We shall see.
Microsoft
Early the next day, it's an interesting time for Microsoft. They've managed to outsell the PS4 for a couple months here and there thanks to the price cut, but they're still trailing overall, and while they've started to come swinging the perception is still that they're sorta just rummaging around and plodding along. Halo 5 will almost certainly get the spotlight and given past trends they'll showcase Black Ops III here, and other then the probably inevitable confirmation of the Gears of War up-res, I don't know what else will pop up. It's still hard to read what the stance is on Indies because while ID@XBox is around, they still kinda seem half-hearted is taking the plunge beyond a few deals here and there to keep up appearances. Assassin's Creed Syndicate might show up here since Unity was last time, but maybe Sony was able to go back and renew their old deal that usually showcased it at their conference. They'll confirm the new controller and the new 1 TB harddrive, but otherwise, it's up to them. Whether they fall on their face (which I doubt they will) or do well is all up tot hem, there are no outside forces or monkeys on their back to detract this year. Hopefully we get actual Rise of the Tomb Raider footage and some other suprises, maybe real gameplay of stuff like Scalebound and the other trailer only reveals last year.
EA
...does it even stand for "Electronic Arts" anymore? Anyway, it's going to be Star Wars Battlefield Battlefront taking the place of BF4 and Hardline and unless they can prove otherwise will probably be exactly the same as those two. Battlefront was fun, yeah, but I don't know, it was never that great to me, and all the exciting stuff from the cancelled BF3 looks like it has nothing to dow ith this version, even if it looks pretty. I hope they don't pull the "Oh God, we have nothing to show, quick, get some concept art of Mass Effect and Mirror's Edge up there!" again, because EA's shows as a whole are the worst showings at E3 even if you like the games being presented. I'm fine with it being too early for release dates for said ME and new Bioware IP, but they either have to have something tangible to show or just don't bother.
Oh, and for my own amusement, a prediction of how the overly long EA Sports presentation will go:
"Hey guys, look at how awesome Madden/NBA Live/FIFA/PGA Tour looks this year! Last year's game was a piece of crap, only SUCKERS bought that version, this year has -insert jargon here- added that makes it better then ever! This is the greatest version of -sport-ball ever, until next year when we bury this version too to hype up that one! Woooo! Random Athlete reading the prompter talking about how it's just like playing the real sport in real life before taking a bag of money and walking away!"
....though presumably they won't talk abotu FIFA too much. -cough-
Maybe they'll surprise us, but my expectations are low. Most I'll look forward to is more Inquisition DLC, though that may end up at Microsoft due to the timed deal.
Ubisoft
Oh you wacky French developers with a Bond villain CEO that have 2,000 people working on games in the half hour long boring credit sequences. They went from having arguably the best conference of everyone a few years ago to everyone immediately being suspicious about what they're being shown, and it's kinda their own fault. I mean, I'm pretty sure they're not intentionally tricking anyone out there, but their communication hasn't been great, and they have got to stop with the "Open World Game where you climb towers to unlock the map with icons all over the place" template. Even The Crew, the DRIVING game, has stuff you drive to and "climb" to reach satellite dishes to unlock the map, it's just ludicrous at this point. For their part the AC Syndicate team seems to be genuinely disappointed in themselves for how they misfired with Unity and noted where things went a completely different direction from what they intended. I thought the Companion App for Black Flag was neat since you could do your naval trade routes off the consoles and it was handy to build money or unlock things. They just went too far with the Unity app and locked too many damn things, so much so they backed off completely. Also, the snarky, winky joke about in-game currency doesn't work when the game itself HAS in-game currency you buy with real money. Anyway, I wonder if we can expect some wacky Far Cry 4 DLC a la Blood Dragon, since that was probably the one good fun game from them last year, and I'd like to see more. The Division and Rainbow Six will probably appear, though I doubt Division will be out this year since that lot is already for R6, unless they swap them around. Ignoring what weird fantasy land Ubisoft lives in where people who play Co-Op actually role play in communication instead of yelling about the giant bug lying in the room or their mom and dad hasslin' them, I still really don't know how good The Division really will be. If it all depends on everyone working together that'll probably end poorly since everyone wants to be the hero, and I don't know if the game will be interesting enough on its own. There'll probably be a Just Dance Dance Party because those still make tons of money, and Beyond Good & Evil 2 will forever be a tease that I will never get. Alas.
Sony
Sorta like last year, the ball is in Sony's court, though unless they've got some new surprises I don't see what they have coming. The Order ending up being so disappointing and bland beyond the stunning graphics and interesting setting probably hurt them a little even with Bloodbourne being well received, and I don't know if just more of Uncharted 4 will do it this year. We'll get the 1 TB model, of course, and it's hard to say whether Metal Gear will be here or Microsoft since it's done both shows in the past. I mean, really, unless they've got tons of new stuff all they'll have are more HD re-reses. Hopefully we'll get another solid Indie showcase and I for one would love to see more of stuff like Abzu and of course No Man's Sky, but out of everyone I don't know what to expect. Hopefully they don't do anything desperate or do another painfully dull TV segment. I'm stumped, to be honest, I just hope for the best.
Though a PS4 version of Vib Ribbon would be nice.
Nintendo
Ah, you guys. Honestly, I expect the same from last year - a lot of really relaxing chats with the lead developers and programmer over footage of new games with more in-depth demos at the Treehouse Live stuff during the show proper. I imagine Star Fox will be the big centerpiece since they've said Zelda won't be around, and while I won't set myself up for anything, new games for F-Zero or other franchises would be appreciated. I suspect we'll get more Smash DLC announcements, which I welcome, and crossing my fingers for more Mario Kart 8 tracks. Probably some new Amiibo announced, of course, which will cause more people heart ache, though the increased production that started in April SHOULD theoretically start to kick in in a month or so. Really, Nintendo is weird since they do exactly what you epxect them to do, while doing something from out of left field that pleasantly surprises you at the same time. I expect another surprise in the evening like the past few years have shown. Nothing on the NX, they've said it already, but I'm sure people will still complain about it.
Square-Enix
First ever publicly shown conference, and good on SE for realizing they were completely tone deaf for scheduling at the same time as NIntendo, a time slot that Nintendo has ALWAYS held for years, and pushing back an hour. Hopefully they show something since from all accounts their private conferences don't talk about much, and I'm afraid they'll treat this exactly the same. Final Fantasy XV should pop up, and maybe more footage of Kingdom Hearts III, despite my not being all that pleased by that series. I don't know what they'll do, they have plenty to show, especially with their Eidos properties, but it's question of whether or not stuff like Deus Ex will be here or at one of the consoles. There is another Hitman being made, and we are getting a handful of RPG's over here on the 3DS and Vita, but I'm not sure what to expect.
Here's hoping for the end to be the Final Fantasy VII remake........in 2D, on the 3DS, just to tick everyone off.
........though, I'd actually totally dig that.
There's also a PC Gaming specific conference in here, but I don't know what to expect. Valve does its own thing and Blizzard had Blizzcon, so other then the new X-Com I don't know what'll be there. e# has always been very console focused, so this could either be a waste of time or something cool.
So, that's that. Like always I'll take notes and ramble on about everything for each conference because, heck, I always find it fun to do that even if no one cares, and this is like the one time of year we manage to get some sort of discussion going on around here.
That said......what are all of ya'lls predictions, hopes, and dreams? Certainly we need to temper our expectations and be smart, but there's nothing wrong with being excited, at least a little, it's a cool time.
