Some Thoughts - E3 2019: Pre-E3 Announcements, Stadia Connect and EA Play

We back again for E3 2019, very different this year, no Sony, no proper EA conference, a Google Gaming platform known as Stadia and next gen seeming very imminent. It seems to be a weird year for the convention, but nevertheless I am still extremely excited by just some of the pre announcements already. Let's go through them in no particular order.


Destroy All Humans! Remake

I didn't play a lot of these games back on the PS2 but I did play it round friends houses and enjoyed what they were. Honetly this is a series I have always been curious in and the announcement of a remake seems like a great time to jump on. The trailer is really fucking cool as well, I think it must be a Rammstein song but it just really rules, the graphics in the trailer look so good, it is definitely just a pre rendered cut scene but if the game looks half as good as that I will be over the moon.


Spongebob Squarepants Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated

AW HELL YEAH, we're getting some good as Spongebob games back, now we just need the flying dutchman game, lights camera pants and the movie game. There wasn't much of a trailer for this so unsure what it could look like but it's still exciting from my opinion.


Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair

Didn't play the first game, but it looks as if this game is going for a side scrolling platformer and a top down styled over world, unlike the first games, 3D platformer collect-a-thon. Seems cool and fun looking!


Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare

Haven't been a big CoD guy in a long time, but after play the first Modern Warfare remake recently and remembering the enjoyment I got from some of those games I actually am interested in this game. Trailer is really good too. I have a feeling that this might still be in a conference, or this beig announced Pre-E3 confirms that Microsoft had no room for Call Of Duty this year, which would be interesting.


Death Stranding

I still don't know what the fuck this about, but there was a lot more shown here than there was last time and it looks really good and interesting. That's about as much as I have to say because idek what it is gonna be especially after all those tweets Kojima made about the game afterwards saying it isn't an action game its a strand game.


Pokemon Direct on Sword & Shield

DYNAMAX, what a cool ass looking game. I love the open world, I love the seeming fous on arena battles, thats the kinda stuff I want to see in Pokemon as someone who isn't massively attached to the franchise. I think it looks like enough of a change that a lot of fans will be really interested in trying it out.


Stadia Connect

Honestly the promise of Stadia continues to be intriguing but the (maybe) death of physical media still upset me as someone who loves to buy and own physical media. I think the pricing and how it will all work is still confusing even though they have announced it all.


EA Play 

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order

So they showed off an uncut 15 minute gameplay session from the game, and initial thoughts are that it looks really really cool. Combat looks like God Of War, thats the closest I can get to describing it, they kept saying the footage was being played by a 'skilled player' it's a game that hasn't come out yet so I don't know how skilled he is supposed to be, but he was getting hit a lot, and to me that either shows that the game is really hard, the combat is possibly messy or he is purposely trying to show being hit, not sure? Also I found it a little worrying with the way the combat looks, it looked (again) a bit messy, there was only a few cool abilities shown, and it makes me wonder if the game will have a combo list like God of War and a ability tree like God Of War that you can unlock more moves for your lightsaber and the force. This demo made it look like a linear level structure, maybe a little too linear? Not sure maybe I'm just being very cautious about the whole thing? Overall it looks really great. Excited to see more at Microsoft.


Apex Legends

I haven't played much Apex since it came out, not that I didn't like the game, I really loved the game, I think I lost my passion for playing because I wasn't building to anything I really wanted a lot like a skin, like I would do in Overwatch a couple years ago. Well that has changed with what they showed here today, they said 'I think we've upped our skin game' and I agree with that, just with the short few illustrations it looks really cool. Also the new Wraith skin (who is my main) that is out now looks really rad. The big reveal for this was the Season 2 character Watson, which I love everything about, a really different styled character, art direction wise and game play wise, she seems like she might be too over powered but we wont know until we get our hands on her. She has a back story which is the first time this game feels like it's building more of a heavy lore around it, which is what I really wanted out of the game. I always liked the designs of all the characters but Watson looks like they have a made an effort to go out in a different direction. I'm really excited about her and the way the game is going, feels like they understand what made the game less than perfect and aiming to fix that. Overall Season 2 looks very exciting especially with the tease at the end of seemingly a giant dragon!? Very interested and I will definitely playing over the weekend to get that sweet double XP.

E3 2018: EA Play Conference - The Plus and The Minus

Guess who's back? Back again? Oli's back, and I'm going to slaughter EA now.

+ Anthem

Got a big deep look into Anthem at EA, the game looks cool, although I think I have my criticisms my main take away from all of it was: 'This looks like Destiny but made for me'. Destiny isn't really my thing because it's mainly just a multiplayer game, and although Anthem is kinda in the same bag, the addition of having story areas where you basically play a single player Bioware game is pretty crazy. February feels like such a long time away though, for something that you take such a deep dive into I thought I'd be seeing it sooner.

+ Battlefield V

I haven't picked up a military FPS in a long time, and back when I did it was always COD. So recently I've been looking over at the competitor, Battlefield, to see if this is where I'm gonna jump in. Truth is, I'm not sure, but I think the game looks graphically amazing and the story mode seems intriguing. That's the one thing Battlefield has over COD this year and it's definitely a plus to me.

+ Star Wars Battlefront II

Man oh man, a lot happened in between last E3 and this E3 for Battlefront II. And it probably doesn't surprise you that I didn't pick up the game when it came out. The nasty micro-transactions and levelling system killed any enthusiasm the game gave me. Now although at the press conference this year they weren't pulling out all the stops, they were taking a step in the right direction. It gives me confidence that if I wanted to pick up this game in the future at a very low price (I mean low) I'll have a fun time and not have to worry about the horrible stuff that used to be in the game.

+ Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order

Respawn are one of the only EA devs that I have hope for. Titanfall 2 was much better than it should've been and I want to see that team create something great with Star Wars. This game by description alone sounds cool. Obviously they only talked about it so take with a grain of salt.

+ Unravel two

It's nice to have at least one of these 'PLAY NOW' games at a conference, and EA just released a full blown sequel to Unravel. This time a full co-op game, I'm glad EA seem to support co-op games, A Way Out was a lot of fun and Unravel two could be as well. I wasn't fully convinced so I won't be playing it right away, but when I start seeing some positive reviews maybe me and my girlfriend can give it a go.

+ Sea Of Solitude

This games art style is right up my alley, and although there wasn't a huge amount shown about what the game play of this game was, the concept was enough of an interest for me.

- Command & Conquer Rivals

Can't say I know a lot about Command & Conquer, but a lot of time was taken by this mobile game, it was very dull. Legitimately felt like a time filler and although I know this is an IP that is beloved by some people, from what I can gather is that some people hate this is a mobile game and others don't? I don't know but I wasn't interested.

- EA Origin Access Premiere

Streaming gaming services still feels like years and years away from actually feeling good to play. PS Now doesn't feel good so I don't believe any other company could improve on that for a while. Also streaming games isn't a future I want to be going towards. Movies and TV is a different story for streaming as they are very short in comparisons and you don't wanna own a DVD for every movie you like or would like to watch. Video games are huge time sinkers. I like the idea you can jump from game to game to see what you would enjoy, but that could just be a demo service for new releases. I want to actually own the games I enjoy.

- Sports!!!

Same as every year, a lot of sports. It's fine, it felt like they cut it down huge this year.

- NO LOOT BOXES

The fact that they mentioned this several times for different games is really bad. They also expected cheers and celebration. They shouldn't have done these shitty practises in the first place and they shouldn't be commended for not doing it.

- No Skate 4... again.

Maybe this is the new Beyond Good and Evil 2 or The Last Guardian, but with more and more rumours coming out each year signalling a new Skate game, it is so disappointing to never get a word on the franchise.

Overall this conference set my expectations super low, and I felt thoroughly dejected for the first time for an E3. Really unfortunate. 

E3 2017: EA Play Conference - The Plus and The Minus

Welcome to the new series of posts that I'm calling 'The Pus and The Minus' where I take whatever subject I'm talking about and take it down into the bit I think were a plus and the parts I think were a minus.

The first addition is part of the E3 2017 season and it's EA Play! What a way to kick off E3... Maybe not.

The Minus

- TOO MUCH SPORTS

I'm not a big sports guy, and sure I should really be used to the idea that they will always show sports games cause that's their biggest games. But NBA, NFL, Fifa I don't care and taking up the mst of your show with it just alienates the actually audience who are here and tuning in for E3.

- YouTubers and Streamers! LMAO!! xD xD

As some one who watches YouTube everyday, seeing famous YouTubers and streamers as a big part of a conference is EXTREMELY cringy. The most obvious part of this during the conference was Jesse from the channel PrankVSPrank. Someone who is no longer in the trending eye of YouTube and someone who isn't really associated to games. I'd rather just be talked to by the devs not a minor YouTube celebrity who has no reason to be at the conference talking about that game

- New Bioware project

This is a minus because they announced it and showed literally NOTHING. Either show us something substantial or don't show us anything and save the surprise for the conference you will be showing it at.

 - Where are all the surprises?

What happened? Rumours of Skate 4, no where to be seen, no news on the other Star Wars games that we know are being made cause you showed us last year? Not even anything from left-field ? Just a bland normal conference.


The Plus

+ A Way Out

This game looks rad, this is a new co-op only game. That's right you can only play this game co-op, whether that be couch or online. I think that will be the aspect that makes or breaks this game, I'm optimistic. It is from the creators of Brothers. Which was another game that was heavily based on two characters and their story, and this games gimmick is the co-op and the idea that it is a story heavy game. I can't wait to sit down with my buddy or girlfriend and give this game a go and to experience a story together.

+ Star Wars Battlefront II

The opinions on this seems quite split, some see it as a boring extension of the previous game while others think they definitely have listened to their audience. I honestly believe they have listened to the community, I can't wait to play the story. Also the old PS2/PC Star Wars Battlefront II is one of my favourite games of all time, and this game at least looks like they looked at that game for changes. Classes are a big deal at making the game interesting. The points system based on kills to allow you unlock those new classes/heroes just like the older games. Also it has the ship gameplay and ground gameplay combined which is something I've wanted in Battlefront ever since the PS2 game. I'm looking forward to the game, I'm still gonna let the game come out and get the reviews in first before I start to look at buying it but I'm excited nontheless.

Overall the show was cringy and kinda bad. But hopefully that means the bar has been set low for the rest of the week so we can get hyped later. I'll be posting about E3 throughout the week and a new post for each conference. I'll see you again for Microsoft and Bethesda!