The E3 2016 Thread

Bethesda - B- (Dishonored 2 looks fantastic, Skyrim remastered is what I want, Prey could be good)
EA - D
Microsoft - B+ (Gears of War 4, Dead Rising 4, recore, Scalebound, Forza Horizon 3, all on my PC!)
Ubisoft - C (South Park will likely be my GOTY, For Honor looks great, no interest in anything else they presented though)
Sony - A (Wall to wall games, the orchestra were an amazing touch. God of War 4, Detroit, Horizon, TLG, Days Gone....all looked great, the CoD gameplay looked amazing, might buy a CoD for the first time in years. Resident Evil VII was masterfully done and that Kojima soundtrack choice!)
 
Here's my 2 Cents:

EA:

Weakest conference, as always. All the sports stuff is super uninteresting to me, and to a lot of people I expect, so that taking up a large chunk of the show was a huge turn off. That and the biggest pulls of the show like Mass Effect and Star Wars are so early in development that they barely have 10 seconds of gameplay to show which is really disappointing.

Bethesda:

This one was alright, I suppose. Dishonoured 2 was probably the highlight here as I really enjoyed the first game and this just looks like more of that. Prey 2 (or they Prey reboot as it is now) certainly looks interesting and although I've not played a Quake game before, I've played arena based Multiplayer games before and enjoyed them immensely, so that could be good.

Microsoft:

A pretty good showing this year, definitely a lot of games that look interesting. However, their Windows cross buy program turned me off ever buying an Xbox One. Definitely looking forward to games like Dead Rising 4, Scalebound and Recore, with games like Forza Horizon 3, Halo Wars 2 and State of Decay 2 piquing my interest too. We Happy Few was probably the game that caught my attention the most, which is odd considering it isn't even an Xbox Exclusive. I think they should have waited on announcing Scorpio a little but hey, what can you do.

Ubisoft:

An overlong slog of a conference. Ghost Recon Wild Lands looks like it's a ton of fun but aside from that, nothing else interested me really.

Sony:

By far the best conference. The live orchestra was a great touch and every game they showed looked at least somewhat interesting to me. God of War is a franchise I'm not too fussed about but that new game really caught my attention. It looks like they've completely changed the game, which is great because I don't think anyone really wanted another mash-fest. Happy to see The Last Guardian get a release date finally, even if I'm still not entirely sure what it actually is still. Horizon still looks like it has potential to be great and, surprisingly enough, so did Detroit, I just hope that your actions actually do have consequences this time. The biggest surprise of the show for me was Resident Evil 7. Not that it was there, but what it looks like. Like God of War, they've really went back to the drawing board in an attempt to make something fresh. I'm sort of glad in a way, seeing as RE6 was a trainwreck, that they've gone in a completely different direction. Not entirely sold on the VR stuff, but it's nice to see 2 games, RE7 and Farpoint, that look like actual games and not glorified tech demos. Another huge surprise here was Call of Duty Infinite Warfare, which might be the first time I haven't been bored to tears by an E3 CoD demo. The Crash games getting remade/remastered was honestly, a little disappointing. When that music started playing, I, and I'm sure a lot of people, thought a new Crash game was waiting in the wings, but it turned out just to be a remake. Oh well, better than nothing. Death Stranding is certainly...something. Kojima has been let of his leash and I'm incredibly curious to see what he'll do. Insomniac's Spiderman was also a surprise, mostly because the rumour was it was Sucker Punch working on it. It looks pretty good and all but does leave me asking, what ARE Sucker Punch doing? Lastly, Days Gone just kind of looks alright. The fluid looking zombies were cool but I wasn't seeing anything really outstanding or unique.
 
Buzz201 said:
It's not the gaming itself that's difficult, but PC games demand high performance specs. The problem I foresee is that, no longer capped by the specs of the PlayStation and Xbox, developers run wild, games demand increasingly high performance and then people that don't know what they're doing end up having to either buy a new PC or tinker around with the components of it, just to play the latest FIFA, and what could possibly go wrong with that?

And that's before you have a bunch of 12 year old idiots who don't know what they're doing, trying to play CoD and pirating files with a ****-tonne of viruses on to their machine. Whilst their poor parents have no clue what the hell the child is doing or how to fix it.

Unless Microsoft can somehow lock all of Windows down and control it (and judging from the reaction to Windows Store, the more experience PC gamers won't let them), there's no way PC gaming can be a replacement for console gaming. There is just too much that can go wrong, if you don't know what you're doing.
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Eh, I taught myself computer hardware when I was a kid and this was back in the late 90s, my parents had no idea what I was doing and I suppose in hindsight, they were very trusting of me not to destroy the PC adding a 16mb graphics card and upgrading the CPU to 200mHz. I suspect modern day kids are a lot more tech-savvy than I was, having grown up with the whole world revolving around it. I mean they have those Raspberry Pi things in schools now - I might be able to diagnose and repair hardware faults and reinstall an OS, but no way can I bloody code. I mean that's the path to progress, isn't it, removing limitations and letting things run wild?

Locking down Windows would just lead people to jump ship to Linux - I think if there's one thing PC users value it's control over our systems in terms of both hardware and software. And that's something you just can't replicate with a console. In fact as kids do get more savvy, they will probably become more frustrated with the limitations of locked-down systems. You can see it already - Just the other day I overheard a kid talking about why he preferred Android to iPhones because he couldn't just copy music and videos straight over and Apple doesn't support certain file formats. These are the children of the future, and are probably more capable of sorting out and problems they encounter than their parents are.
 
ayase said:
Eh, I taught myself computer hardware when I was a kid and this was back in the late 90s, my parents had no idea what I was doing and I suppose in hindsight, they were very trusting of me not to destroy the PC adding a 16mb graphics card and upgrading the CPU to 200mHz. I suspect modern day kids are a lot more tech-savvy than I was, having grown up with the whole world revolving around it. I mean they have those Raspberry Pi things in schools now - I might be able to diagnose and repair hardware faults and reinstall an OS, but no way can I bloody code. I mean that's the path to progress, isn't it, removing limitations and letting things run wild?

Locking down Windows would just lead people to jump ship to Linux - I think if there's one thing PC users value it's control over our systems in terms of both hardware and software. And that's something you just can't replicate with a console. In fact as kids do get more savvy, they will probably become more frustrated with the limitations of locked-down systems. You can see it already - Just the other day I overheard a kid talking about why he preferred Android to iPhones because he couldn't just copy music and videos straight over and Apple doesn't support certain file formats. These are the children of the future, and are probably more capable of sorting out and problems they encounter than their parents are.
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I've had that file format problem before (although in my case it was a Windows Phone not handling ALAC). Still doesn't mean I could take the back off my Laptop and mess around with it, without causing major damage...

I think the children growing up are software savvy, rather than hardware savvy. I understand the PC users valuing control thing, but what PC users seem not to realise is that relatively limitless freedom provides a relatively limitless list of things that can go wrong and a relatively limited number of people that can help. Personally, I'd assume the future of gaming would be specialised devices for an android-esque system, which can be rooted for further control. To be honest, all of this is waffle, my point was more that PC gamers seem blind to the disadvantages of their platform, especially for novice users, and the disadvantages lead me to think that it will never overtake a service, console infrastructure.
 
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Confirmed for WiiU and NX.

Trailer:

Oh my god. Any fears i had are gone. I want this game now. It looks stunning. Nintendo have really decided to go experiment in every way they can. It also looks like we have voice acting. We'll find out later in more detail with the demo
 
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I haven't decided I'm going to get a vr yet . I do think Resident Evil vr sounds like a lot of fun . I probably buy The Last Guardian , Watch Dogs 2 , Detroit: Become Human , Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War . I will definitely buy Final Fantasy XV
 
Zelda does indeed look pretty but not sold on the gameplay, also looks like you might need to use the Wii U gamepad to play it? That's a deal breaker for me as that thing is garbage. :/ Hopefully the NX handles it better, definitely time for me to get rid of my Wii U.

Anyway a decent weekend with some interesting stuff, Sony had the best showing but I don't think I saw anything that blew me away all weekend.
 
Buzz201 said:
I've had that file format problem before (although in my case it was a Windows Phone not handling ALAC). Still doesn't mean I could take the back off my Laptop and mess around with it, without causing major damage...

I think the children growing up are software savvy, rather than hardware savvy. I understand the PC users valuing control thing, but what PC users seem not to realise is that relatively limitless freedom provides a relatively limitless list of things that can go wrong and a relatively limited number of people that can help. Personally, I'd assume the future of gaming would be specialised devices for an android-esque system, which can be rooted for further control. To be honest, all of this is waffle, my point was more that PC gamers seem blind to the disadvantages of their platform, especially for novice users, and the disadvantages lead me to think that it will never overtake a service, console infrastructure.
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Steam has been incredibly successful, and while I'm not keeping up to date very well with the whole "Steam Machine" idea it strikes me as a good one for those who are used to consoles but looking to move into slightly less restrictive PC gaming. While I'd never be an advocate of one company dominating the marketplace entirely, and I am happy services like GOG exist for those who disagree with DRM, I do start question what the value is for gamers in being bound to a platform like Sony or MS as consoles go up in price and PCs come down. The days when a PC cost ten times what a console did are long gone, console launch prices these days could buy you a half decent gaming PC.

I think you're probably right the marketplace won't change that much and there'll always be a place for consoles with a certain section of the market, but the pluses of PC gaming like constant backwards compatibility, shopping around for digital downloads and the ability to tweak performance/visuals make me think they're going to continue to attract a growing userbase who've grown up able to understand them. Really the only attraction to me consoles have is the exclusive games - The idea of having to buy a whole new machine to play games my PC could easily run is kind of galling, but you pays your money and takes your choice.

Laptops are a hardware nightmare anyway, due to the way everything's crammed in and the GPU is usually permanently attached to the mainboard... I go through a laptop about every three-four years because the bastards just end up overheating and fry either the GPU or CPU, then it's bye-bye laptop because it's not worth the cost of repair. I think when my current one dies I'll just give up on them entirely and use a tablet for portability, at least they don't have annoying whirring fans.
 
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ayase said:
I do start question what the value is for gamers in being bound to a platform like Sony or MS as consoles go up in price and PCs come down. The days when a PC cost ten times what a console did are long gone, console launch prices these days could buy you a half decent gaming PC.
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I might(?) be a dying minority but despite having been around PCs since birth and being reasonably computer savvy I don't see them as viable gaming platforms and strongly prefer consoles. I don't want all of the extra tat you can do on a PC when I game; I get mad enough when I forget to lock my PSN account down enough and random Italian men suddenly initiate conversations about their cars with me while I'm trying to punch some boss to death. I don't want to use a mouse, a keyboard, an Xbox controller or fussy joypad drivers. If anything the extra convenience of mobile gaming has made me even more intolerant of the joys of PC gaming; nobody ever interrupts me, everything is set up just right by default (other than perhaps the camera/movement orientation, yech) and the bally thing might actually have been tested on my hardware - rather than requiring hours of tinkering to get the right blend of graphics drivers to avoid a crash whenever the game tries to draw a certain particle effect. Bad memories of having to play the whole of Portal without being able to look through the Portals.

Price is a good counter, for people who happen to be motivated by price. I'd rather have one amazing game than a hundred which don't suit my tastes, so consoles represent great value when they already offer some of the most exciting titles I want to play. There will likely always be enthusiasts for whom the things I consider additional hassle are part of the fun, but on the flip side there will probably always be people who can't be bothered and want to focus on the games alone - and I do think that the younger generation of people who have grown up with the quick satisfaction from having tablets and phones at their fingertips might be just as split down those lines as older relics like those of us posting here.

R
 
Zelda looks incredible, just as I expected.The Japanese logo gives me real Ghibli vibes.
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Also while I'm here, Nintendo have announced some Amiibo for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild which are due out in 2017:
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I posted more, higher quality pics here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=207052489

Also, some new Mario Amiibo:
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In for Daisy.
 
Buzzkillington said:
crashmatt said:
Whats with all these console's with bells on, I think its a bit of a con. Spend £300 on a new console then , hey here a more powerful one that you could have bought.
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I mean, isn't that tech in a nutshell? Something better is always just around the corner.

Anyhoo MS had a pretty solid showing this year, that said I think I'm really gonna have to sell my xbox one while it still has some value, literally no reason to have it for me when I could just play the few MS games I'm interested in on the PC.
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I get the feeling that they have been more or less forced to produce the updated consoles by 4K TV and VR. Both of which increases the load on the GPU. I have seen report of Microsoft people saying both that they will force developers to support both or that they will leave the choice up to the developers.

qaiz said:
Zelda looks incredible, just as I expected.The Japanese logo gives me real Ghibli vibes.
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I know I am currently watching they livestream and some of the things you can do are insane, being able to pickup, move and use as a weapon metal items using a rune. Snowboarding on you a shield.
 
I have to agree with qaiz that Zelda is looking wonderful, I am utterly in love with it. I'm a huge Zelda fan anyway but honestly this could very easily be one of my very favourite games if done correctly. I've seen a lot of hate around the internet now it has been confirmed there isn't a female 'link' playable, but honestly I'm not disappointed by that. ^^;

I would like the choice between male and female link as much as anyone but considering they're angling this story as the hero being one in slumber for 100 years (and very likely to have been a Link we already know from a previous game), I think it's reasonable to have left out the addition of a female one. Personally I'd never play as a female Link anyway because to me the hero of time always has been, and will be, a guy but I'm not against the change for a future title. Had the story not been the way it seemingly is I might be a little more sympathetic to the hate going around, but as it stands I am perfectly happy. Apart from having to wait until 2017 for the game...

It looks like Zelda is being taken in some fresh directions which will really refresh it while keeping Zelda, well, Zelda. Anyways away from Zelda I've been pretty happy with this E3 and after catching up on Sony's conference I think there is a lot to like from all sides. Definitely hyped for Horizon now, I hope it holds up as well as everyone thinks it will. :)
 
Video now up for Wild Guns Reloaded, looking exactly the same as the SNES version, albeit now in 16:9 and with a four player mode:


I'm glad they've kept the gorgeous aesthetic from the original and not tried to make it all dark and edgy, but gee whiz guys, some new levels would have been nice.
 
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It's a shame we aren't getting dual audio for Persona 5, I mean I didn't expect that we would but that cast is incredible so I would have loved to have it available to us.
 
It would be nice to have the option, but the dubs for both P3 and P4 have been great (IMO) and they always have a solid cast. Cassandra Lee Morris is one of my favourite English VAs, so it's off to a terrific start. I really hope they get Cristina Vee for a role too she's my absolute favourite English VA. Hell, just make it one big Madoka/K-On reunion and get Christine Marie Cabanos too!
 
So yeah, Zelda is totally my game of show. I'm still annoyed/disappointed that Nintendo didn't reveal the NX, but man, they totally delivered with Zelda. The game looks phenomenal.

As a long time fan (I was about 4 when I first played Zelda in 1990 on the NES), I must admit that I have rarely felt tired of the formula, and the fear of having it shaken up dramatically and not retaining Zelda like quality was a big one, but man, it just looks phenomenal. Only watched about half hour of treehouse play through as I want to know as little about this title. All we need now is a release date (for it and the NX).

I think the top five games of show for me are:

Zelda: Breath of The Wild
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Dead Rising 4
God of War
Detroit: Becoming Human

I loved Stick of Truth, and can't wait for more South Park RPG goodness. Humour is spot on again and the additions to the combat system look great. Dead Rising has always been a blast to play, and the Christmas theme looks fantastic. God of War caught my attention from the off with the amazing orchestra before hand, but by far the biggest surprise was just how good Detroit looked. I love a good sci-fi piece and combine this with quality visual novel/mystery gameplay, and I think I might just love the game!
 
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