Hello everyone! Welcome back to Spyder’s Corner. I know I’ve been quite the absentee writer in the past few months, but I’m hoping to fix that and what better time than with E3! Geek Christmas in June is upon us and the first 1.5 days have past, so I wanted to put some of my thoughts to paper (or computer data, whatever). The way I’m planning my coverage this year will be a blurb about my overall thoughts about each conference and then a bulleted list of the items covered within and my thoughts on each title. Well, with that said, I’m going to combine my coverage of days 1 and 2 since only EA presented on the first day. Let’s get to it, starting with a summary video and then my more in-depth write up!
Unrelated but shameless self-promotion of the podcast I work on with Taylor of Scrapt Productions (mentioned in the above video):
Full summary below, feel free to skip to the developers/conferences you’re interested in, there’s a lot of text here:
EA’s conference overall was pretty bland. They didn’t have much in the way of new or crazy or surprising but rather decided to stick with their staples: A few indie unveilings, their sports lineup, and DLC/refresh announcements for current titles. I would have loved to see EA come out swinging with something big, especially since they were the first press conference of the year, but as it stands, I think we’ll be hard pressed to find a more boring conference (with a few exclusions). Their indie titles stood out the most again this year, and notably the passion from the head of Jo-Mei Studios, who came to unveil Sea of Solitude. You could tell she put a lot of love and emotion into this title and that’s not to say people who work on sports games don’t bring that to their games, but rather you can see and feel it with the indie teams. Anthem continues to intrigue, but EA/Bioware have done a relatively poor job of showing off the game properly. Additionally, their trailers seemed to be on a loop or something and kept replaying the same bits, which, all-in-all didn’t help the already mediocre conference.
–Battlefield V – Set in World War 2, Battlefield V was announced a couple of weeks ago. The trademark destructible environments are present with a few other added features such as being able to dive through windows or move weapon emplacements with other vehicles. Much to the pleasure of the crowd, EA announced that there will be no loot boxes and no premium pass for Battlefield V. After the Star Wars Battlefront 2 fiasco, that’s probably the safe play. Lastly, they teased a battle royale mode, as well as a special story mode. Big open battlefields are what I remember most about the series back in the day on PC, so I feel like battle royale mode is very fitting here. Battlefield V will release this year on October 19th, with a few options for early access through preordering and Origin Access
–FIFA 19 – The only cool thing I really have to say about FIFA 19 is that Hans Zimmer helped work on the music for the trailer. For people who care, they’re adding the UEFA champions league to the game and Alex Hunter will return in the story mode. Additionally, they released a free update to FIFA 18 to include the World Cup. FIFA 19 releases on September 28th, 2018.
–Tech demo – EA showed off a very brief video of game streaming from the cloud, all in HD, which they said would be the future of games but isn’t quite ready yet, then they moved on. This seemed like an odd segment and didn’t really serve a purpose other than to let us know EA is considering moving to cloud-based gaming and to tie into Origin Access.
–Origin Access Premier – All of the company’s new PC will be available at launch through Origin Access Premier. The new subscription service was not given a date or a price, but they did mention that FIFA 19, Battlefield V, Anthem, and Madden 19 (back on PC for the first time in nearly a decade, I believe) would be available, as well as access to the Vault, which contains an older catalog of games. This is a similar offering to the Xbox Games Pass, but EA was actually ahead of the curve here.
–Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order – Vince Zampella from Respawn Entertainment was sitting in the crowd and teased us with the announcement of the title and timeline for this game. It’s set to take place between Episodes III and IV when the last of the Jedi are being hunted down. In his words, “It’s amazing” but he literally gets paid to say that, so time will tell. The release window was a tentative holiday 2019.
–Star Wars Battlefront II – The Fallen Order chat was a nice segue into new content for Battlefront II. A member of the team at DICE came out and apologized for the rough start but restated the company’s commitment to delivering a game that people love. Extraction mode was announced as well as a new squad system that makes teaming up and playing with your friends easier than before. A new dogfighting mode featuring hero ships was briefly mentioned as well as large-scale multiplayer sandbox modes (battle royale, possibly/probably? Everyone’s doing it!). As far as other content, heroes and locations from Solo are set to release this coming week and further down the road, the team is set to focus on content from the Clone Wars. General Grievous, Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Count Dooku where all announced to be playable heroes in addition to the map of Geonosis, which will be the largest level they’ve ever released.
–Unravel Two – The sequel to Unravel (surprise!) looks to be another fun and touching adventure. As soon as the trailer started, you could hear people in the crowd chanting, “YARNIE! YARNIE! YARNIE!” This new game is made to be played cooperatively but can be played as a solo adventure. The game director said it’s friendlier and more challenging, but also more playful. Additionally, it is available right now!
–Sea of Solitude – The next dev from EA Originals, Jo-Mei Games from Berlin, came out on the stage and you could feel her passion for the game she was creating. The premise is when humans become lonely, they become monsters, so it’s a story about bringing emotions into balance. The game is very stylized and reminds me a bit of Rime. It is currently set to release in early 2019, so keep an eye out.
–NBA Live 19 – The only notes I have here say “Includes streetball, releases 9/7/18.” I think that’s enough…
–Madden 19 – This is the second year Madden will be utilizing Battlefield’s Frostbite engine and the graphics do look good, but it’s a new Madden. It will likely be released in August, as per usual.
–Command & Conquer Rivals – This was a bit of an odd unveiling. A few popular internet streamers and shoutcaster came out on stage to show off a mobile game that’s a MOBA/RTS mash-up. The players sit down and face off in a match. You build from a small set of units and try to control points on the map to fill a gauge and launch a missile at your opponent’s base. Two missile strikes win you the game. It wasn’t until after the round was over that they announced it is a Command & Conquer title. Android users can sign up for the pre-alpha today, but the game will eventually release on iOS as well.
–EA Play To Give (charity) – This wasn’t a game, but it was announced that EA donated $1 million to 3 charities based on gamers’ participation in events in a few of their games. Since I participate in Extra Life every year, I’m always happy to hear about other ways that gamers are making a difference and working towards change. The charities EA donated to were HeForShe, Ditch the Label, and the National Bullying Prevention Center.
–Anthem – The final, and most awaited game of EA’s press conference had kind of a lackluster showing, but we did get a decent amount of info. The concept Bioware is going for is “Our world, my story,” meaning the world is shared with other players, but the story is driven along through your interactions/quests in the main city hubs. The premise of the world is that there are tools that were left by the gods that have come into conflict with one another and are causing discord across the world. As a freelancer, the players pilot Javelins (Iron Man-esque suits of armor, they even do the “superhero landing” in the trailer a couple of times) to survive in the harsh environments outside of the cities. There are 4 classes: Ranger, Colossus, Interceptor, and Storm, each with their own abilities and aesthetics. To personalize your Javelin, there will be gear, parts, paint jobs, and updated geometry for the suits. Cosmetic/vanity items will be made available but there will be no lootboxes or the ability to pay your way into powerful items. Additionally, the team noted that the game can be played solo but is meant to be played cooperatively. Even though the presentation wasn’t the best, I’m still interested to see more. It reminds me of Destiny but with the ability to fly and go underwater, which both look pretty sweet. Time will tell, and the game is set to launch on February 22 of next year.
Microsoft E3 2018 Press Conference
Microsoft kicked off day 2 with a pretty solid press conference. It was heavy with trailers and footage, keeping the chatter to a minimum in a no-nonsense kind of way. They came to show off games and that’s what they did. Starting with a new Halo title and ending with Cyberpunk 2077, Microsoft definitely brought the content with them. From a pure volume perspective, Microsoft crushed everyone else so far. Going into the press conference, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Microsoft has been relatively quiet on the release front as my catalog for PS4 and Switch has grown, so it was good to see the number of interesting releases they have lined up for the next year or so.
–Halo Infinite – Right out of the gate with a new Halo game. Powered by the Slipspace Engine, the game will focus on Master Chief once again saving humanity. The end of the trailer showed a Spartan plugging an AI into the Mjolnir armor, possibly hinting at Cortana’s return or a new AI companion? Time will tell.
–Ori and the Will of the Wisps – Shown at last year’s E3, the game continues to look fantastic. The color palette of the game, the smooth animations, and overall crisp visuals make it hard to look away from. It seems in this game, we’re getting an owl friend to help us traverse certain stages. I guess I need to go play the first Ori before this comes out…
–Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – A new game from From Software and Activision, our samurai-like main character gets his left arm cut off and replace with a fancy Swiss Army knife arm. In the trailer, the multi-tool produces an axe, a shield, and a grappling hook, all used in various ways from combat to traversal. It’ll be interesting to see if this game is as challenging as the Souls games, even though combat appears to be a bit faster paced. A release window of 2019 was all that was given.
–Fallout 76 – Prior to Bethesda’s own conference, Todd Howard came out to show off Fallout 76 on the Microsoft stage. The game is a prequel to all the other Fallout games and is 4 times larger than Fallout 4. Set in West Virginia, the game is the first online multiplayer experience for the series. More on this title in the Bethesda summary.
–The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit – Set in the Life is Strange universe; the game follows the story of a creative young boy and his imaginary alter-ego of Captain Spirit as he copes with hardships of life around him. Currently set for a June 26th release date.
–Crackdown 3 – Terry Crews voiced the entire trailer as he is one of the characters in Crackdown 3 and, needless to say, it was hilarious. The game looks even more over-the-top than its predecessors, which is no small feat. With the cloud-based processing that was touted a couple of years ago, the level of destruction in the game should be unreal. Let’s hope it’s more like the first game and less like the second… Crackdown 3 was given a release window of February 2019.
–Nier: Automata Become As Gods Edition – Nier: Automata is coming to Xbox One with all the available DLC. On my ever-growing backlog of games to play, Automata was pretty well received, even though the original Nier was more of a niche, cult classic type game. Xbox owners can get their hands on the game later this month when it is released on June 26th.
–Metro: Exodus – Gameplay footage of several varied environments and enemy types but not much in the way of specifics here. Exodus is set to release on 2/22/19.
–Kingdom Hearts 3 – A new trailer debuted on the Microsoft stage for this long-awaited sequel. Showing off worlds from Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, Tangled, Hercules, and Toy Story, we were given a decent look at the plethora of content we’ll be seeing in this game, but by no means an exhaustive look. The Gummi Ships were also shown to be back for the first time since Kingdom Hearts 2, I believe. Along with a new song from Utada, we were finally given a release date of January 29th, 2019. This is slightly later than anticipated, since it was said that the game would be releasing in 2018, but Tetsuya Nomura issued a statement thanking fans for their patience and that it would be rewarded as they polish and make this game the best it can be.
–Sea of Thieves expansions – Two expansions for Rare’s open-world pirate game were announced during the conference: Cursed Sails set for July of this year and Forsaken Shores, set for September. Cursed Sails will likely introduce NPC ships and crews to the game that had previously been discussed in a Reddit AMA. Forsaken Shores dropped the line, “A new land is revealed” in the trailer, which would seem to indicate just that, a new map/area to explore. Along with the Hungering Deep, these new DLCs plot of course of continued support for the game for several months to come and I’m sure there’s more on the horizon! (Sea what I did there? I’ll see myself out…)
–Battlefield V Nordlys – A brief trailer was shown for the dramatic war story mode of the new Battlefield game.
–Forza Horizon 4 – Set in Britain and with a new season system that affects gameplay and area accessibility, the new Forza looks like a solid addition to an already fantastic series. They’ve taken open world racing to a new level, as you’ll be online with the entire community, in real-time, able to see and challenge other players on the fly or seamlessly enter co-op for challenges. There will also be world challenges that anyone and everyone can participate in, signaled by a blimp floating in the game world. Additionally, Forza Horizon 4 will be included at launch on October 2nd in the Xbox Game Pass.
–Microsoft Game Studio acquisitions – In addition to the studios already under their umbrella, Microsoft announced the acquisition of 5 new studios: The Initiative, Undead Labs, Playground Games (makers of Forza Horizon), Ninja Theory (huge win for Microsoft here), and Compulsion Games. As I mentioned in my blurb, releases for Microsoft have been pretty skimpy as of late, so adding these developers to their first party brand should be a solid boon for them.
–We Happy Few – New trailer looks pretty creepy. Taking a page out of Equilibrium’s book, people are controlled by taking pills to control their emotions. In this case, to keep them happy. But things aren’t as happy-go-lucky as they seem on the surface. The game releases on August 10th and looks like it’ll be an interesting one.
–PUBG – New maps and content coming to PUBG, exclusively on Xbox this winter.
–Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition – One of the highest rated games in the Tales series, Tales of Vesperia is getting an all-inclusive version for current generation consoles. I’ve been told I need to play this game by a few people, so may give it a look when it releases this winter.
–Division 2 – Pre-empting Ubisoft’s conference, the Division 2 was announced to thunderous applause. The trailer showed the new setting of Washington DC and gave a glimpse into back story of how things ended up the way they did, followed by a bit of gameplay. The Division 2 is set to release on March 15th, 2019.
–Game Pass – Microsoft took a brief moment to discuss the success of Game Pass and some upcoming developments for their subscription platform. They announced Fast Start, which will use machine learning to help get games ready for users based on how they use the games. If that sounds a little ambiguous, I feel like it was. I assume this means it’s going to be able to download portions of the game you need to start playing and keep downloading in the background as you go, but it a smarter, more efficient way. This is supposed to be launching this month. Additionally, Microsoft announced that Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls Online, and The Division are available on Game Pass right now and that Forza Horizon 4 and Crackdown 3 will be on Game Pass on their respective launch days.
–Indie Montage – A decent portion of the 50 titles Microsoft showed were sped through in this indie montage. There wasn’t really time to get a good look at any of them in particular, but it’s nice to know they’re working with indie studios as well to be the content to Xbox.
–Shadow of the Tomb Raider – A new trailer showing Lara becoming one with the jungle, blending in to the trees/underbrush and mercilessly taking down enemies. The game looks just as good as the others since the reboot which have been fantastic, so I’m looking forward to giving this one some playtime when it releases on September 14th.
–Session – A new skateboarding title with a relatively lackluster trailer. People were upset that EA didn’t unveil Skate 4, so maybe this will hold them over until that happens or Tony Hawk makes a new game. No further details were given.
–Black Desert – A Korean MMORPG that has been on the market for a while now and praised for its visuals is making its way to Xbox. From what I’ve heard, the game is very grind-heavy, but is nice to look at, so if that’s your thing, look forward to this one landing on Xbox in the future.
–Devil May Cry 5 – Nero is back and with a terrible haircut. It looks like he’s lost his demon arm and it’s been replaced by a mechanical one created by a FFXV Cindy-wannabe (complete with a terrible fake Southern accent). He does still have his motorcycle-handle sword. It’s been 10 years since Devil May Cry 4 and we did get the reboot of DmC a few years ago but no true sequel. Dante shows up at the end of the trailer, riding in on a motorcycle and looking a bit worse for wear, as well. The game was given a release window of Spring 2019.
–Cuphead expansion – The Delicious Last Course. Adds new stages, bosses, and a new playable character in Miss Chalice. I still haven’t played Cuphead but heard it can be infuriatingly difficult. A generic 2019 release window was given.
–Tunic – Heavily inspired by the old school Legend of Zelda games, Tunic follows a tiny fox on a big adventure. The trailer showed our fox friend finding a sword, cutting grass, smashing pots for spare change, and fighting a variety of enemies in an isometric view. In all honesty, I will play this game. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. No release details were provided.
–Jump Force – I’m excited for this game. The trailer started off with a statue of Madara and Hashirama from Naruto (I believe, correct me if I’m wrong), then the Thousand Sunny, and lastly, Frieza’s spaceship. We’re then treated to a scene of Naruto, Luffy, and Goku fighting Frieza in an urban environment. The game is apparently going to be a 3v3 action brawler to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Shonen Jump, so expect the roster to grow from here. At the end of the trailer, Light and Ryuk are standing on top of a building looking over the chaos. 2019 was the only date provided.
–Dying Light 2 – PARKOUR! The team behind Dying Light has made their parkour system more fluid (heavily reminiscent of Mirror’s Edge) and updated their melee combat as well. The game was described as taking place in the Modern Dark Ages and now, you have choices to make that will bear fruit and have you reap the consequences or benefits. The game directors showed a branching chart of how a single decision can affect the game world.
–Battletoads – FINALLY! Phil Spencer has been wearing Battletoads shirts to conference for the past few years and we’ve heard nothing. We got them as playable characters in Killer Instinct, but no other news was offered. The announcer starts talking about how they knew the time would come when the three of them would be needed again, and the eyes from the logo popped up on a few of the screens in the theatre then he was interrupted as one of the speeders from the underground level crashes into a stone wall. A tongue sticks to the speeder and pulls it off-screen and then the old theme song kicks in and it’s full-on nostalgia time. The game tout “body morphing genre mash-ups, 3 player couch co-op, and 4K hand-drawn 2.5D graphics.” Anyway, I played the original Battletoads on the NES and don’t think I ever made it past the underground corridor stage. Partially because that game is hard and partially because my brothers and I would play and there is friendly fire in that game. Battletoads is set to release some time in 2019.
–Just Cause 4 – This series just keeps getting more and more ridiculous… The world looks more varied, the weather patterns affect gameplay (there’s a freaking tornado!), and it is as over-the-top as you would expect from this series. Just Cause 4 is currently slated for a December 4th release.
–Gears Pop! – So, the Gears logo came up and everyone went nuts, then the wall is broken down and standing there is a little Funko Pop! Vinyl of Marcus Fenix, and everyone is a little confused… He’s joined by a few other characters and then they start getting shot at and we get a screen indicating this is going to be an app, set for release in 2019.
–Gears Tactics – Following the Pop! announcement, we’re shown a trailer for a tactics-based Gears game set 12 years before the events of Gears 1. It’s new ground for the series but it seems very fitting as well. We were told more news would be shared “soon.”
–Gears 5 – Finally, they dropped the announcement everyone was hoping for when the Pop! Vinyls appeared. Gears 5 is in the works, and like every developer states, “It’s our most ambitious title yet!” We were given a trailer showing some familiar faces and that the focus of this game will be on Kait as she searches for answers to some strange dreams/premonitions she’s been having. A 2019 release window was announced so that gives me some time to go and play through Gears 4 finally…
–New Xbox – Only a brief mention, but it was noted that the hardware team at Microsoft is working on the next iteration of Xbox, which is to be expected. We may hear more about this next year, but I don’t think a release will happen until at least 2020. Time will tell.
–Cyberpunk 2077 – Last but certainly not least, we were treated to a trailer for CD Projekt RED’s Cyberpunk 2077. This is the first time we’ve actually seen footage of the game world and the character who looks to be our protagonist. The game looks great, as expected, and the development team has stated before that it is much larger than even the world in the Witcher 3, so expected plenty of content to keep you busy here. During the intro to the trailer, there was a brief section in DOS and as the text was scrolling, I noticed what appeared to be Xbox Codes. I got a screen grab and tried to redeem around 8 of the codes and ALL had been claimed already. THE TRAILER WASN’T EVEN OVER YET, NERDS! But that’s ok. Afterwards, I looked up what they were for and it was to redeem a copy of The Witcher 3 and its DLC, which I already have on PC, it was just crazy to me how quickly people jumped on that. Anyway, I’m definitely looking forward to diving into the world of Cyberpunk 2077. I’m way behind on the Witcher series, so being able to start at the ground floor with this series will be appreciated.
Bethesda E3 2018 Press Conference
The Bethesda conference has been my favorite to this point. Based on the content they unveiled, the entertainment value of the event, and how much I enjoy their games, they’ve pulled ahead in my E3 rankings here. It was nice to see that Bethesda is the #1 ranked publisher in the world. I also enjoyed that the Switch as well as the Champion’s Tunic and Master Sword in Skyrim appeared in the hype reel at the start of the conference. The main takeaways for me were the new entries in each of the company’s main franchises, including an entirely new one. Fallout 76 looks fun and I’ll give it a try in the multiplayer environment, but apparently playing solo is an option (and more my style). Bethesda also teased (and I use that word lightly, because it was basically just title screens) Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield. We all knew Elder Scrolls VI was in the works, but it’s great to finally get confirmation and hopefully that means we’ll see something more concrete next year. Additionally, Starfield is the company’s first new IP in a while and is basically going to be Elder Scrolls/Fallout in space. I’m 100% behind that. The jokes were great, as well. From making fun of the Walmart Canada leaks, to their very self-aware trailer for Skyrim Very Special Edition (coming soon to Amazon Echo, Etch-A-Sketch, pagers, and smart fridges everywhere!), they made the presentation fun and not just an info dump session.
–Rage 2 – Bethesda kicked off the Rage 2 announcement with Andrew W.K. coming out on stage and playing a song to a very unimpressed/confused crowd. Once the gameplay started, people took notice. We were told “if you can see it, you can drive it.” Gruesome deaths and vulgar language ran rampant along with the color palette of this game. They even took a brief aside to show a commercial on a TV in-game to announce the collector’s edition of the game. All-in-all, it looks fun and should be better received than the first one was. Rage 2 is set to release in Spring of 2019.
–Elder Scrolls Legends – The game is currently available, but they announced overhauled visuals coming to the game in preparation for the launch on Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. Your progress from the PC/mobile versions will transfer over to consoles and vice versa through your Bethesda.net account.
–Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset – ESO has seen a decent amount of success, touting over 11 million players (over 1 million of which are new within the past year) and has won MMO of the year for three years in a row now. Two new updates are set for the near future. Wolfhunter is focused on werewolves, and Murkmire, which takes players to Black Marsh and delves into Argonian culture and lore. Maybe they’ll discuss the origins of the Lusty Argonian Maid…
–Doom Eternal – Back and bigger than ever, the directors of Doom announced that Eternal will have twice as many demons, a more powerful Doomslayer, and will bring hell to Earth. No further info was given but we were told to expect more at QuakeCon in August.
–Quake Champions – The big news was if you go to www.quake.com this week, you can download a free to play version of the game and if you do so this week, you’re able to keep playing, even after the trial closes. Quake is a bit faster than I can manage, but it’s fun to screw around with friends at LAN parties like Extra Life and such.
–Prey – Huge free update launched on Sunday night with 3 new modes: A new story mode, New Game+, and Survival mode. Outside of this, the Mooncrash DLC was announced. It’s said to be infinitely replayable since items and enemies are spawned at random and you play to see how long you can survive. Typhon Hunter was the last mode described, which is a 1v5 mode where it’s human versus mimics. Enemies could be hiding as everyday objects and it’s your job to hunt them down.
–Wolfenstein Youngblood – Set in the 1908’s, Youngblood follows BJ Blazkowicz’s twin daughters. As such, the game can be played cooperatively as well as alone. Wolfenstein Youngblood is set for a 2019 release.
–Prey VR & Wolfenstein Cyberpilot – Both VR games in the works but not a lot of info was given. We’ll probably see me at QuakeCon.
–Fallout 76 – The same trailer from the Microsoft conference was used, but then more information and some gameplay were provided. The game will be entirely online, with dozens of players in a persistent world with dedicated servers (supposed to be after the apocalypse, not an amusement park according to Todd Howard). New monsters are being added to the series based on legends and myths from West Virginia, where the game takes place. All progress made remains with the character but it’s unclear what happens to settlements if you end up on another server. The map also has several nuclear missile silos, which you can capture and fire on whatever area of the map you wish. So, if you have a pesky group of players who has been a thorn in your side. Nuke them off the map! There will be a B.E.T.A. (the Break-it Early Test Application), which you can sign up for when you preorder the game. A Power Armor Collector’s Edition was also announced, containing a glow in the dark map of the game world, figures for the map, the game, and a T-51 power helmet with working headlamp and voice changer that you can actually wear. Eventually, Bethesda will release enough collector’s editions of Fallout games, that we’ll have a full power armor set. The Power Armor Edition is already sold out everywhere but keeps popping in and out of stock as more quantity trickles in.
–Fallout Shelter – The game is now available on PS4 and the Switch, and it’s still free!
– Elder Scrolls: Blades – A new mobile app that will eventually be on every platform up to and including VR. This is a full-fledged Elder Scrolls adventure with a mixture of handcrafted and procedurally-generated dungeons and a few different modes. Abyss, which is a survival mode, essentially, Arena for PvP, and Town, which is the hub for the story mode. While playing on mobile devices, the game can be played landscape or in portrait (meeting mode as Todd Howard calls it, because in landscape mode, you’re clearly not working). You can sign up for early access by preordering on the app store.
–Starfield – As mentioned in my summary blurb, I’m excited for this one even though next to nothing was shown. We had a brief glimpse of a planet seen from space and some sort of wormhole opening, then it cut to the title screen. Still, an Elder Scrolls/Fallout-esque game in space? Sign me up!
–Elder Scrolls VI – Bethesda wrapped up their showcase with another teaser, this time for Elder Scrolls VI. A view of a city from afar and the title (no subtitle) were all we were given. Rumor is that this title will be on whatever the next gen of consoles looks like.
Devolver Digital E3 2018 Press Conference
Devolver Digital is odd in their approach to E3. Their showcase is very tongue-in-cheek, clearly mocking the state of the industry as well as society, and can be a bit overly aggressive. They only showed like 3 games and Lootbox Coin. Some people love it, some people hate it. I’m somewhere in between. Their games, much like themselves, tend to be very over the top and the jokes are building from year to year now. I honestly don’t know that I’ll play any of the games they showed this year but keep reading if you want to see what they did show.
–Scum Season 2 – An open world survival game that appears to put you in the role of a supermax prison in-mate. Coming to early access in August of this year, you can see more on Steam.
–Lootbox Coin – Marrying loot boxes and cryptocurrency, Devolver actually released these printed coins on their merch site that have no apparent use or value. The site was down when I first went to see if they created these coins, then I saw them at $75 apiece, and as of writing this, they went from being sold out to being up to $250. Time will tell what they’re good for, if anything. I could easily see this being like the Cards Against Humanity stunt where they said, “You give us $5 and we give you nothing.” And that’s exactly what they did.
–My Friend Pedro – A ridiculous looking 2D slow-motion shooter. Very Deadpool-esque. Coming to Switch and PC in 2019.
–Metal Wolf Chaos XD – Originally, this was a From Software game from back in 2004. It is now being remastered, but retaining its pretty terrible original voice acting. Much like Devolver’s conference, it looks to be pretty ridiculous and is coming to Xbox One, PS4, and PC later this year. You can find out more at www.mechamericagreatagain.com
And that is it for days 1 and 2. This may be the longest post I’ve ever typed up and I’ve still got two more days to go. If you made it this far, thank you. If you skimmed to the parts you wanted to read about, thank you. If you just skipped all the way to the end hoping for something more, thank you and I’m sorry. I’ll be back with my day 3 and 4 impressions over the next few days, but in the meantime, I appreciate you stopping by. Let me know if you want to discuss anything posted above or have any suggestions for the blog/video content. Take care!
