E3 2016 Afterthoughts: Hit or Miss?

The biggest game convention of the year is finally underway and new announcements are coming from left and right. And how is it so far? Did it live up to expectations? Exceeded it? Or the biggest letdown since first Watch_Dogs? Here are top game segments that I was most anticipating or caught my interest and what I personally think about them.

EA Conference

EA conference: 90% Sport games. 10% Games that actually matters.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

This was probably my most anticipated game in E3, but unfortunately it didn't reveal much about the game other than showing a trailer which gives more or less details from what we already know. I was really hoping it will give more insight on the timeline, story, characters and gameplay. What was even more disappointing is that they put so little time on this game but went forward to spend a LOT longer to promote the annual sport games.

NEW Star Wars Games

Probably the biggest let down of EA Conference. I was looking forward for a major announcement fn an upcoming game especially with a reveal trailer but all we got was a video that confirms that Visceral Games are working on an open world game that takes place in Imperia Era and Spawn seems to be developing a Lightsaber dueling centric game. Other than that they are also making new content for already released games like The Old Republic and Battlefront. It's been years since EA was given license to develop future Star Wars and they are a long way from proving themselves that they are up to the role.

Battlefield 1

At this point this doesn't even need an introduction does it? ;)

Titanfalls 2

I wasn't interested in the first game so didn't buy it but the new story mode and different types of Titans looks interesting. I can't say that I'm thrilled, but going to keep an eye on this one.

Bethesda Conference

What I loved about Bethesda conference is that most of it consists of presentations of actual gameplay instead of flashy eye candy trailers.

Dishonored 2

The first two I noticed: Emily is finally addressing Corvo as her father, putting all those theories and hints to rest. It will be really interesting to see their interactions with this new father-daughter relationship and how it affects the story. The next thing is Corvo is much more talkative and has more personality in contrast for the first game, where he was more of a silent protagonist. The gameplay also seems to be a lot improved; Other than the fact we can play as both Emily and Corvo (Which means you can have 4 different playthroughs :D ) we also get to see the new world and the unique powers each of them has. The most eye catching powers were Emily's ability to manipulate time and the domino power. In short, I'M SOLD. :D There's no more need of spoiling surprises with story trailers nor gameplay videos, this is in top of my 2016 Wish List.

Prey

The development of a sequel to the 2006 Prey has been going through a lot of hoops for quite some time but after a decade we're finally seeing the reboot done by Arkane Studios, the guys who are behind Dishonored series.

Microsoft Conference

Gears of War 4

Gears of War was the first game of the conference that was announced to have crossplay across Windows 10 PC and Xbox One. There are many more games that were announced to have this feature and I really do believe this a step toward the right direction.

We happy few

This is probably the strangest game of the conference. Even though we didn't see that much gameplay footage I do like the story concept and has a Bioshock: Infinite vibe especially with its visual art style, time periods it is set and similar political philosophies. Fortunately we don't have to wait long as the game will be released next month.

Dead Rising 4

I still haven't played the previous games of the series (Bought DA2 from a sale though. :P ) so I can't tell how much improved the game is from the predecessors but it does look really fun especially with the Christmas themed weapons.

State of Decay 2

At this point Zombie games have become its own genre and I loved the first State of Decay for taking a different path from the traditional hack and slash games. Much like how Telltale's Walking Dead was story centric, this game is more survival centric where you're trying to survive in an open world with limited resources. There are no main characters, anyone can die at any time due to the choices the player make. I don't usually like Zombie shooter games but every now and then you get a unique game like this so I'm very interested to see what the sequel can offer.

Scalebound

An extreme version of "How to train your Dragon". ;)

Sea of Thieves

Monkey Island meets Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. :D With all these big and complex games around this one looks very light hearted and simple but also has enough to make it a lot of fun.

Halo Wars 2

This is not what people had in mind when they asked to bring Halo to PC. :p

Ubisoft Conference

The best part of this conference was probably Aisha Tyler with her witty and sometimes cringe worthy comments. :p

Watchdogs 2

At this point this game does look promising, With improvements upon the features of the predecessor, more expanded story, more alive open world, and new game mechanics. And since it's coming in a few months, chances of it being downgraded are low as well. So hopefully this game will live up to the expectations that are set by trailers. Hopefully.

Steep

After seeing so much dullness of FIFA and Madden, this game was a real sight of sore eyes.

For Honor

While I do like the story concept of this game, I feel the combat system seems very basic even for a hack and slash game. Hopefully in the coming days we will see more gameplay elements and how it differs from the rest.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands

I'm a bit behind when it comes to Tom Clancy's series but this looks awesome. I've already bought Conviction and Blacklist so hopefully I would be able to finish them before this is released.

Trials of Blood Dragon

I haven't played any of Trials games but I loved Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon for its nostalgic retro theme and witty pop culture references. I wish we had a full sequel instead of a Trials spinoff but we'll see how it goes.

South Park: Fractured but Whole

I don't usually watch South Park, but I like this game purely for its adult humor and banters, especially how they are taking shots at Marvel, DC and J.J. Abrams.

Sony Conference

I personally think Sony won this year with many new game announcements and promotion of PS VR and VR exclusive games. Also they had an epic orchestra.

Spider-Man

Good bye Activision! For over a decade they made more than a dozen of Spider-Man games till 2014 when their license expired. As a big Spidey fan myself, I have played almost every video game and can say while most of them were good and enjoyable, it was in need of a new direction and fresh ideas to reach its full potential. And that's where Marvel and Insomnia games comes to play. Insomnia have already proven themselves with the highly successful Ratchet and Clank series, Resistance and Sunset Overdrive so I hope they will do the same thing to Spidey what Rocksteady did to Batman.

The bad news is this being a PS4 exclusive, most likely due to a deal made with Sony. A game about a pop culture icon like Spider-Man shouldn't be available for just a part of its fanbase. I hope this is only a timed exclusive like Rise of Tomb Raider because otherwise I would very disappointed.

Horizon: Zero Dawn

I love everything about this game: The story, the open world, game mechanics, everything. Making epic games like these to be console exclusives should be made illegal.

Detroit: Become Human

One of the most unique games that was announced in the conference. I love story driven games like these where the player can observe situations and surroundings and make different choices that leads to different conclusions. And the fact that is neo-noir sci-fi game featuring Androids makes it even better. The trailer that was released last year had my curiosity, this has my attention.

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens

With all the hype for the big games I forgot all about this one. One thing I need to point out is giving voice to LEGO characters really doesn't work with games like these. It works on LEGO movie and games with original stories like LEGO Batman, but not with movie adaptations in which you directly put dialogues from the movie in to the game's scenes. Without the complex facial expressions and emotions of the movie, hearing those dialogues coming out of cartoonish mini figures looks like a really cheap voice dub. It loses the uniqueness and charm of traditional LEGO games that made is so fun and humorous.

Days Gone

I can't say much about the story and open world since we didn't see much, but that horde in the gameplay was impressive. Though I did notice that the Zombie AI is literally brain dead considering how the main character runs directly toward them and they just moved out of the way. Hopefully there are enough elements to make this a unique game considering this is like 4th Zombie game that was featured in the conference. (Others being Dead Rising 4, State of Decay 2 and Resident Evil 7) That's a tough competition especially considering this is new IP of a way too worn out genre.

Call of Duty

Even though Infinite Warfare got a lot of 'criticism' from people, (including me :p ) to be honest the gameplay itself looks pretty decent and they seems to have put effort to set themselves apart from the predecessors of the series, especially by adding space combat. It still seems to suffer from traditional restricted mission design and 2007 graphics design though. I'm sure most would jump to the bandwagon of hating COD, and review sites will give it a good 'ol 9/10 but I think I'll wait and see till the game is released before judging whether it's worth buying or not.

VR Games. VR Games Everywhere

One thing that was very eye catching this year, especially in Sony and Ubisoft conferences, were the introduction of new VR exclusive games and VR Tech. Not only there were original games such as Farpoint and Eaglepoint but also licenced ones like Batman Arkham VR and Star Trek VR. There were also games that supports VR gameplay like Final Fantasy XV and Resident Evil 7. Then there is the promotion PS VR. The concept of Virtual Reality has been around for some time and now we're seeing a leap with all these big commercial games which would decide how successful this tech will be in long term. While I don't see myself buying these any time soon, (I'm poor. :p ) it will be very interesting see where this will be headed for in future and how it will affect gaming industry as a whole.

-----------------------

Of cause these are the ones that took my personal interest, There were many awesome games like God of War, Final Fantasy XV, Resident Evil 7, which I'm sure many are excited for.

E3 is all about presentation and promotion, and I think this year was pretty solid one with announcement and demonstrations of new games, sequels, reboots, remasters, new hardware, tech, Hideo Kojima and whatnot. I didn't get to see much about my most anticipated games but at same time found new and interesting games to look forward to. What did you think about E3 2016 and what game segments did you love/hate the most?

Thanks for reading.

Bee Out.

Great job with the post!

I thought it was a pretty good E3. I saw pretty much everything I was hoping for, which was good. But my biggest complaint was the lack of Mass Effect info from EA. I wanted to see much more... I'm assuming they're going to do some separate event for it :(

But overall, it was great. The next 6 months have some awesome games coming!

I love this time of the year, especially with events like E3. It pretty much satisfied me but I was disappointed that a couple things were a no show. I wanted to see some Crackdown action but didn't but I appreciated almost all of the games MS showed, many that I'm interested in, were coming out this year. Sony showed some great future games but I really wanted to know about the NeO because I rather get the NeO than get my gold PS4 back from my sis. I guess by the time these future games comes out, the NeO will be ready, I still wanted more info about it this year, oh well. I didn't really bother with Nintendo but I did watch lengthy videos of Zelda, it looks great but not enough to warrant a Wii U purchase. And the rest of the game developers showed some really good stuff I wouldn't mind getting. So overall a successful E3 showing by everyone. E3 always reminds me why I enjoy gaming so much, it did it again this year.

Last year's E3 was a lot more exciting IMO. The only things I'm glad about is the Dishonored 2 gameplay and the upcoming Deus Ex: Mankind Divided stage interview/gameplay. I really wanted to see more of ME: Andromeda, like real gameplay. This is the last E3 before the game releases(unless it gets a delay...) so everyone expected more than random scenes and development video.

Aside from those, Sony won the console war with a lot of interesting games to show compared to Microsoft and Ubisoft left me indifferent. Bethesda did a decent enough job.

I didn't care for most of the game they showed ... I had the feeling of already play every new games. So yeah, I'm not hyped at all and PS VR, no thank you.

The way they were talking in the livecast of Spiderman yesterday, it sounds like Sony and marvel made the deal first, then went to Insomniac, who happen to have their offices right down the street from marvel to get them to do the game. I wouldn't be surprised if this was part of the deal that allowed Marvel Studios to get creative control over the spiderman movie. In any case, Insomniac was a good choice.

Was really impressed with the God of War reveal. Never really cared for the franchise, but they're tearing it down and building it back up, in the director's own words. Sounded, by his words, like the chain swords are gone entirely because they don't fit the new dynamic and that axe is basically replacing them. Love it, and love the move to the Norse pantheon. Apparently Kratos doesn't know the language but his son does, so the two will be together a lot, which introduces huge possibilities, not the least of which Kratos turning into an actual character rather than than the avatar of Mondays.

Also might be the first time in years I buy a Call of Duty.

Thing about the Days Gone AI in Livestream they were explaining is that they're not zombies, and good luck getting that to stick. They're not undead, they're mutated. Their bodies work, so shooting them in the heart has as much effect as shooting them in the head. Apparently they have a lot of ambient behavior built in...so like the children hide from the more mature forms because otherwise they will get eaten, and apparently they have day-night cycles that player will want to plan around when venturing out.

Also, you can play the RE7 demo now for those that haven't noticed it yet. Clearly Capcom played the PT demo. No clue what the final game will be like, but the RE universe is so convoluted at this point, it could use a shift back to basic horror. The demo is more Texas Chainsaw than Living Dead, though.

Huge hit this year. I remember last year trying to stay awake watching E3, and many of my friends agree, there was not much going on. This year, OMG ! If you blinked you could miss something. E3 killed it. They should just have it every 2 years.

Sony's conference was one of the best ever imho, they just focused on the games. Nintendo's was very limited sadly and M$ conference was all flash with little substance. That said overall there were a lot of cool games announced, but too many 1st person shooters and 3rd person open-world games imho. If you're not bored of those types of games you have a lot to look forward to.

I thought it was a really good E3 with tons of great games shown. Microsoft was my favourite with a lot of excellent games to look forward to along with some cool new hardware. Sony's was my second favourite with the number of impressive games. Ubisoft and Bethesda were pretty good. EA's was a bit disappointing with very little Mass Effect shown. Loved Zelda: Breath of the Wild but Nintendo didn't really have anything else.

Awesome post! I thought this years E3 was good, I would say that both Sony and MS had decent showings overall.

Their top Exclusives (Gears4 and Horizon:ZD) looked impressive. My only disappointments where that there wasn't any real hands on time with Mass Effect and my top game for 2016(GR:Wildlands) got pushed into 2017.

It was pretty good thanks to some of the games shown at Sony, Microsoft conference. Bathesda had best conference IMO. As usual Activision, EA and Ubi stuff was boring except teaser of Mass Effect but I'm keeping my expectations in check.

Although the Sport games mightn't matter to you, they are really important to EA. They make a tonne of money and they're really popular. So there is a lot of people who would be happy to see them there. I agree that if you've no interest, they're boring to watch. Still though, I don't like Zombie games but I see their importance.

It was epic, so many good games and news. It was just missing few touches like Cyberpunk & Prince of Persia and I'd call it a perfect E3.

I enjoyed it. It was a bit low on reveals, other than Spidey, Prey, and Death Stranding, but I thought a lot of games looked cool. I thought Sony had yet another home run conference. It was game after game excitement. And most of what they showed was exclusive to PS4. I've been a PlayStation fan for as long as I can remember, but I honestly cannot see why anybody would prefer Xbox One over PS4. Not a single game at Microsoft's conference was an Xbox One exclusive, since all of their "exclusives" are heading to PC as well. But even as a sole PS4 owner, not one of those X1/PC games looked appealing to me. Even Gears 4 didn't interest me in the way that the series usually does.

My favorite games from E3 this year is a toss-up between Horizon Zero Dawn and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Scalebound is one of the games I'm interested in and about one sole reasons I bought the Xbox one. If it wasn't for that game not sure if I would've bought it or not even though I did want to play Gears of War and Ori and the Blind Forest.
My favorite announcment was probably The Last Guardian finally getting a damn release date
And as for Scalebound looks like you will be able to control the dragon as well at least what I heard anyway.