E3 2019 | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Press Conference Edition)

by Danny Bivens

Lots of cool announcements amongst a mess.

For gamers, E3 is always a fun time of the year. Although most of us can’t make it to the show, it’s always great to be able to catch all of the latest news and announcements online. This year was obviously no different. Lots of great stuff got announced. We got some great updates on already known games and projects. But man oh man, getting there was a bit of a slog.

The Good

Obviously, being a Nintendo based website/podcast/YouTube channel, we’re always keeping a close eye on everything that Nintendo does. The Nintendo Direct was fantastically paced, had pretty much no stinkers and did a great job at getting me excited for what lies ahead in 2019 and beyond. If you want our full thoughts on the Direct, you’re going to want to check out our video here.

As for everything else, Square Enix by far had the best showing. The length of their event, the fact that they showed off actual gameplay for most of their games and the quality (I hope) of the titles was amazing. SE showed that if done right, stage shows can still be interesting to watch. Between the fans being respectful and the presenters doing a great job at controlling reactions (not allowing themselves to be interrupted), it was a great presentation. As for the games that I’m looking forward to, Final Fantasy VII Remake is looking fantastic and will surely please old fans and maybe even bring in some new ones. Other things like Final Fantasy VIII rising from its grave to be remastered was also a welcome addition. Seiken Densetsu 3 aka Trials of Mana FINALLY getting a release in English as both a remake (later) and a Super Famicom title (NOW) was super surprising. The Avengers game was just icing on the cake.

The Bad

I’ve already talked a little bit about EA and some of their questionable decisions. I did forget to mention Greg Miller and how he felt the need to scream every single word that he said during the event. But I digress. Microsoft got off to a good start, actually. They had some cool updates and reveals (Cyberpunk 2077 looks really neat. And Keanu.) but things really started to bog down the further they got into their presentation. They did show off A LOT of games. A lot of games. Nothing really grabbed me, though. Finding out about new hardware is always fun for me. It’s neat that Microsoft announced that thing will be available Holiday 2020. Halo is going to be a thing on it. Neat. But as it stands right now, I’m finding that both Sony and Microsoft are going to have to really bring it if I’m going to upgrade to their next generation consoles.

There were some other bad events out there, too. Bethesda…They were pretty bold with kicking off the show with Fallout 76, but honestly at this point considering how much of a dumpster fire the game was when it launched, I don't think people are coming back. Maybe it’ll have a resurgence similar to how Final Fantasy XIV went from being garbage to something that people actually love now. It’s a tall order, but not out of the realm of possibility.

Crowd reactions. They had to be the worst in Bethesda’s conference. I’ve since read that a lot of people from the development teams and their families were in the audience. That’s cool. Good for them. They’re obviously passionate and excited to show off what kind of stuff they are working on. BUT, when the excitement slows down the show like it did here, it’s not good for others in attendance and pretty annoying for people watching on the internet. When people are cheering after every other sentence, it really bogs down the event. This show was another good reason why companies should move on to pre-recorded reveals ala the Nintendo Direct method. Either that, or have better stage presence similar to the presenters during the Square Enix conference.

Obviously, Doom Eternal looked great - probably the saving grace of the conference. They had me scared at a certain point when they were explaining the game, though (you can see what I’m talking about here). They were going on about how the “engaging game design” and how the game “always has something new to throw at you even deep into the campaign.” From that point, I THOUGHT they were going to say that all of the stages are going to procedurally generated. Thankfully, this was not the case. Still, even with Doom, Bethesda’s show was a dud.

The Ugly

Ubisoft. I love the company and a lot of the games that they put out. They’ve had some awesome tie-ins with Nintendo over the past few years with Mario + Rabbids and Starlink. This year, though. Wow. Their conference was just boring. Opening with an Assassin’s Creed musical piece that drug on for roughly six minutes kind of set the tone - this was going to be full of unnecessary fluff. Not to crap on the performers or anything, but the decision to start off in that way was interesting to probably nobody. Aside from Gods and Monsters (coming from the creators Assassin’s Creed Odyssey), from the top of my head, I can’t think of anything that I’m excited about. It’s great that Sam Fisher is back, though, right?!…Well, in a mobile game. Also, Uplay+? Okay. Count me as not interested.

Just Dance 2020. Why does this need a time slot during an event that caters to hardcore gamers? People who are interested in the series will more than likely just see the game on store shelves and pick it up. Maybe some more adventurous souls will try to track down a video on YouTube. I guarantee you they weren’t watching the press event and never will. Great job.

Conclusion

Another E3 finished. It’ll be interesting to see if these companies will still keep moving forward with live stage events in the future. Having something more akin to a Nintendo Direct seems to be the better option given some of the information that’s put out there, but, it’s good to see that with a great showing from Square Enix just in terms of games and presentation, the live stage event doesn’t have to be taken out back and put down.